Placebo Problems: Boundary Work in the Psychedelic Science Renaissance
January 1, 2018 Katherine Hendy 19 citations
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Katherine Hendy
2 papers in the library · 30 citations · publishing 2018-2021
Papers
MDMA Is Not Ecstasy: The Production of Pharmaceutical Safety through Documents in Clinical Trials.
Medical anthropology quarterly March 1, 2021 Katherine Hendy 11 citations
Nonprofit efforts to develop MDMA as a prescription pharmaceutical reveal that the drug's identity is not fixed but is shaped by clinical trial practices. Drawing from ethnographic research, the article argues that researchers' distinction between pure MDMA and the street drug Ecstasy rests not on chemical difference but on a difference in safety that must be actively produced through the trial. Safety emerges from managing which bodies can absorb the drug and which bodily events count as effects, accomplished through clinical documents that control these relations. The work examines how pharmaceuticals become fluid objects transformed in new informational and material environments.