Psychedelic experiences in psychedelic-assisted therapy for depression
Philosophical Psychology July 25, 2024 Umair Khan 1 citation
A philosophical argument proposes that psychedelics alleviate depression by generating a surge of existential feelings that revise a depressed person's diminished sense of possibility and restore their ability to be affected by the world. Drawing on Ratcliffe's account of depression, the author contends that the subjective effects of psychedelics change the sense of reality, which constitutes the personal-level mechanism behind psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. This account supports the view that psychedelics work in an experience-dependent manner, meaning the therapeutic benefits arise from the content of the psychedelic experience itself.