Ayahuasca rituals for the treatment of substance use disorders: Three narratives of former patients of a neo‐shamanic center from Uruguay
Juan Scuro, Ismael Apud, Víctor T. Pérez Martínez
Anthropology of Consciousness November 10, 2024 DOI: 10.1111/anoc.12242 via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractThree former patients with substance use disorders recovered after participating in ayahuasca rituals at a neo-shamanic center in Uruguay, run by a psychologist trained in the Peruvian vegetalismo tradition. In-depth interviews collected their narratives, analyzed from a medical anthropology perspective focusing on biographical, substance use, spiritual, and entheogenic trajectories. The impact of the rituals is attributed not only to ayahuasca's psychedelic properties but to its role as a psychotherapeutic tool embedded in a social, cultural, and spiritual setting designed to treat substance use disorders.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Case study Case report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 3 |
| Population | Former patients with substance use disorders at a neo-shamanic center in Uruguay |
| Intervention | Ayahuasca |
| Topics | Ayahuasca |
| Keywords | Narrative Center category theory Substance use Psychology |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key finding | Ayahuasca rituals, as part of a psychotherapeutic setting embedded in a social, cultural, and spiritual context, contributed to the recovery of three patients with substance use disorders. |
Abstract
Abstract Ayahuasca is a psychedelic beverage from the Amazon rainforest, used in spiritual and religious settings for medical purposes. Since the 1990s onwards, several religious and neo‐shamanic groups have been using it in Uruguay within the psychospiritual networks. Some participants go to rituals of ayahuasca looking for therapeutic alternatives to certain ailments, such as substance use disorders (SUDs). In this chapter, three cases of former patients who recovered in a neo‐shamanic center that uses ayahuasca for the treatment of SUDs are described and analyzed. The center is conducted by a psychologist trained in the Peruvian vegetalismo tradition. An ethnographic description of the ritual setting as well as the process of psychotherapeutic intervention of the center are described. In‐depth interviews were used to collect the narratives of the three patients. A medical anthropology perspective is used, focusing on different subjective trajectories: the general biographic trajectory, SUDs trajectory, spiritual trajectory, and the trajectory under the entheogenic field, ayahuasca included. As we discuss, the impact of ayahuasca rituals ceremonies should be explained not only by ayahuasca as a psychedelic compound, but as a psychotherapeutic tool immersed in a social, cultural, and spiritual setting aimed at the treatment of SUDs.