The psychedelic renaissance, a resurgence of interest in psychedelic medicine after decades of repression, is driven by scientific innovation and a flood of venture capital investment. Interviews with industry stakeholders reveal that private funding shapes research practices and public perceptions, creating tension between idealistic and capitalist narratives. The analysis highlights a paradox: psychedelic mysticism resists the rigid criteria of evidence-based medicine, challenging the psychopharmacological paradigm. The findings call for critical public engagement with the ethical dimensions of integrating psychedelics into mainstream medicine, focusing on the emergence of grey areas in capital networks where cultural and political values are rearranged.
The ongoing 'psychedelic renaissance' and its medicalization of psychedelics may reinforce historical psychiatric practices as a form of technobiopower, intertwining with neoliberal rationality, reductionist psychiatry, and fascism. Through a genealogical and critical review, the authors argue that this movement overlooks valuable contributions from French and Brazilian philosophers and psychoanalysts. Incorporating analytics of desire could deepen understanding of links between psychology, capitalism, and psychedelics. The paper explores micropolitics around diagnostics and contemporary malaise, proposing ways to escape the current grammar of suffering by drawing on insights from global minority movements. It asserts that psychedelics combined with psychotherapy can be tools for resisting neoliberalism.