Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
David B. Yaden, Sandeep M. Nayak, Roland R. Griffiths
4 citations
The proportion of people who change their metaphysical beliefs after psychedelic experiences is not yet known precisely, but evidence suggests such changes can occur in some cases. This review examines the accruing evidence on the prevalence and magnitude of these belief changes and considers potential psychological mechanisms. It also briefly reviews relevant historical and contemporary philosophical work and describes clinical guidelines. Philosophically informed recommendations are offered for research and clinical contexts where psychedelic-induced metaphysical belief changes may arise.
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Link Ray Swanson
2 citations
Psychedelic drugs produce well-known but poorly understood visual effects. This chapter connects psychedelic visual phenomenology to everyday visual perception. Three types of open-eye visuals—common changes in external visual appearances under psychedelics—are described, and the authors argue they arise from hypersensitivity to contextual cues. Evidence and analysis support the idea that psychedelics selectively affect contextual modulation processes at multiple levels of visual perception. The chapter then explains how these visual effects might relate to therapeutic benefits and explores practical implications for psychedelic therapy, cognitive neuroscience, and philosophy.
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Virginia Ballesteros
1 citation
A philosophical account argues that psychedelic experiences can treat depression by shifting one's entire world, from a state devoid of beauty and meaning to one full of beauty and connection. Drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein's ideas on aesthetics, ethics, and mysticism, the account characterizes depression as a world from which we feel disconnected, while psychedelics immerse us in a meaningful world, changing perspective and opening new possibilities for action and evaluation of self and relationships.
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Chris Letheby, Philip Gerrans
1 citation
This chapter reviews the history of psychedelics in psychiatry, including the phenomenological and behavioral effects that initially prompted their therapeutic study. It provides an overview of recent research on the safety, efficacy, and therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. The chapter also summarizes the contributions of each chapter in the volume, showing how they address philosophical issues arising from the new wave of psychedelic psychiatry. The chapters are organized around three themes: 'Self and Mind', 'Science and Psychiatry', and 'Ethics and Spirituality'.
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 19, 2024
Eric Steinhart
Spirituality requires learning, accepting, and adapting to ultimate reality. Psychedelic experiences can facilitate this, but only through interpretations that connect them to ultimate reality. This chapter evaluates three interpretations from a naturalist perspective. The religious interpretation, which claims psychedelics reveal non-natural spirits, is deemed false by naturalists and offers no genuine spiritual benefits. The physicalistic naturalist interpretation has strong scientific support but likely fails to account for important spiritual aspects of psychedelic experiences. The Platonic naturalist interpretation has good scientific support and accounts for all spiritual aspects. The chapter cautions that psychedelic spirituality requires metaphysical pluralism.
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Thomas Metzinger
The enculturation problem concerns how to integrate the psychedelic experience into society in a rational, evidence-based, and ethically convincing way. Framed as an issue for applied ethics and policy-making, it involves harm reduction, technology assessment, and ethically informed legal regulation. The chapter argues that solving this problem requires developing a genuine 'culture of consciousness' (Bewussteinskultur).
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Samir Chopra, Chris Letheby
By examining extraordinary psychedelic experiences, particularly those that induce forgiveness, we can gain insight into ordinary moral life. This chapter argues that studying altered moral cognition reveals the importance of coherence and dissonance between thoughts and emotions in moral experience. It supports unconventional ideas about moral phenomenology and psychology, suggesting that transformative psychedelic experiences can inform our understanding of moral experience without claiming they are safe or effective for moral enhancement.
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Anna Ciaunica, Adam Safron
The feeling of losing familiarity with oneself and one's body, as occurs in depersonalization and during psychedelic experiences, can be understood through active inference. Psychedelic experiences may involve radically altered prior expectations, allowing flexible modulation of self- and world models and enabling individuals to leave behind perceptual rigidities that keep them stuck in behavioral patterns. In contrast, depersonalization may involve lower control in acquiring new self- and world models, leading to rigid disintegration of habitual self-experiences and a feeling of being stuck in one's mind.
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Philip Gerrans
The self is best understood as a 'centre of interoceptive gravity'—a locus of bodily and affective experience that is later interpreted and communicated through narrative. This idea, building on Daniel Dennett's concept of a 'centre of narrative gravity', explains the normal sense of a persistent, unified self and the altered self-awareness during psychedelic experiences. The self-model, or 'avatar', is implemented by neural circuitry that integrates bodily, affective, and narrative processes to optimize organismic function. The feeling of unity and persistence emerges from this circuitry, while the narrative 'I' reports but does not create this feeling, which provides a locus of control and concern.
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Raphaël Millière
The chapter examines whether ordinary experience includes a distinct feeling of owning one's body, known as the phenomenology of body ownership. Proponents argue that reports from pathological conditions and bodily illusions support this view, but those reports are open to interpretation. The author considers drug-induced experiences in which healthy subjects report disownership of body parts or the whole body, obtained under controlled conditions. Reports of subjective transitions between owning and disowning one's body provide tentative evidence that ordinary experience may involve a phenomenology of ownership that can be disrupted. While not definitive, such evidence suggests the debate would benefit from closer attention to drug-induced states and disentangling the multi-faceted bodily effects of psychoactive compounds.