Philosophy, psychiatry & psychology
January 1, 2021
Tehseen Noorani
68 citations
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is returning to psychiatry, and the concept of 'set and setting' is central to its use. An ethnography of psychedelic therapeutics on the US east coast from 2015-2019 reveals political and economic pressures to contain psychedelic experiences, which often overflow such attempts. Two key qualities emerge: a labor of protecting spaces, revealing an attentiveness to disconnection that tensions with psychedelic discourses of connection; and how psychedelic experiences, as 'mind-manifesting', reflect the self, re-presenting epistemic disagreements about the self's nature. These qualities offer an analytics for reading the cultural politics of psychedelic use.
Philosophy, psychiatry & psychology
January 1, 2021
Zeno van Duppen, Jasper Feyaerts
15 citations
The text explores how phenomenological philosophy, particularly concepts of intersubjectivity and temporality, can inform the understanding and treatment of thought disorder in psychosis. Drawing on the work of Sass and psychoanalytic perspectives, it argues that disturbances in the experience of time and self-other relations are central to schizophrenia. The authors suggest that integrating epistemological insights from philosophy with psychiatric practice offers new avenues for psychotherapy, emphasizing the need for therapists to attend to altered subjective experiences rather than solely focusing on symptoms. This theoretical synthesis points toward more nuanced, patient-centered approaches in mental health care.
Philosophy, psychiatry & psychology
January 1, 2021
Brian D. Earp, David B. Yaden
4 citations
Psychedelic research must be studied across cultures and disciplines, and a recent medical anthropology contribution by Noorani (2021) explores how psychedelics challenge conventional boundaries like treatment versus enhancement or medical versus recreational. The authors agree with Noorani's emphasis on the therapeutic setting as a 'container' for experiences and his critical look at background conditions, including the values and assumptions of scientists and institutions. They note that science is shaped by omitted voices, often those of women and people of color. Noorani draws on his training at Johns Hopkins and ethnography with the 'psychedelic community,' but the authors criticize his vague definition of community, which lumps together researchers, therapists, neo-shamanic healers, hippies, and others without clear coherence.
Philosophy, psychiatry & psychology
January 1, 2021
Tehseen Noorani
The author responds to comments on their ethnographic work, clarifying that they examined the centrality of 'set and setting' in the Psychedelic Renaissance by focusing on the language of containment. Drawing from material culture studies, they analyzed how containers are constructed, maintained, and how leaks or overflows are managed, along with the work done by boundaries and the relationship between containers and their contents. The goal was to explore how concerns over set, setting, and containment are reshaping psychedelic practices and discourses within and beyond clinical trials, affecting both therapeutics and social justice efforts.
Philosophy, psychiatry & psychology
January 1, 2021
Ben Lewis
Tehseen Noorani's ethnographic study of the Johns Hopkins psychedelic research program between 2015 and 2019 argues that the emphasis on 'set and setting' in psychedelic-assisted therapy articulates not only therapeutic imperatives but also social, political, and economic ones. Noorani problematizes the notion of 'containment' and interrogates how psychedelics alter conceptions of self and the social environments they arise from. The commentary notes that while Noorani's analysis reveals complex sociocultural interpretations, simpler pragmatic explanations exist for research design choices, such as using living room settings and CCTV cameras for safety, data collection, and medicolegal protection. These design features are empirical claims testable through research.
Philosophy, psychiatry & psychology
January 1, 2021
Bhrigupati Singh
Philosophical distance—how foreign concepts are received in an existing intellectual territory—is best measured not through complete agreement or estrangement but through small events of thought: understandings, misunderstandings, and clarifications. The author argues that within phenomenological psychopathology, the distinction between intra-subjective (the minimal self) and inter-subjective (social) dimensions of psychosis may be misleading. Drawing on Cavell's counter-history of philosophy, the author suggests that the core of the intra-subjective is vulnerable to and remade by particular others. Concepts like pitch, tone, and intensity serve as signposts for studying both intra- and inter-subjective phenomena. The author also flags a different intuition of distance, leaving it open for future measurement.