Rebuttal to “Questioning the recovery of dissociated traumatic memories under psilocybin”

Spontaneously recovered, previously forgotten traumatic memories of sexual assaults emerged in two research participants during psilocybin treatment. The authors defend their classification of these experiences as dissociated traumatic memories against criticisms that they lacked corroborating evidence and failed to consider alternative explanations. They further discuss potential therapeutic effects linked to how such experiences are labeled.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In our original case report we provide detailed accounts of two research participants who reported the emergence of spontaneously recovered, previously forgotten traumatic memories of sexual assaults during psilocybin treatment. In their commentary of this article, Kangaslampi et al. argue that we preemptively label the experiences as dissociated traumatic memories in the absence of corroborating evidence and consideration of alternative explanations. Here we further address potential therapeutic effects associated with the classification of experiences and provide a rebuttal to the authors' criticisms on our chosen nomenclature.