On Redescribing the Indescribable: Trauma, Psychoanalysis and Psychedelic Therapy

The psychedelic state is an interdependent intrapsychic, somatic, interpersonal, and spiritual happening that can bring forth unconscious desires and traumas, experienced as both cathartic and anxiety-provoking. In clinical trials, these effects often co-occur. Amid renewed interest in psychedelics for mental health, gaps remain in understanding extra-pharmacological factors and therapeutic models. Drawing from psychoanalytic perspectives, this paper explores intersections between psychedelic therapy and psychoanalysis for traumatic stress. It considers the psychedelic state as an attempt to make the unconscious conscious by immersing in a bewildering waking-dream, a willful vulnerability to build trust, and an indescribable experience to redescribe the traumatic past.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The psychedelic state can be thought about as an interdependent intrapsychic, somatic, interpersonal and spiritual happening which encourages, perhaps both to the relief and dismay of those participating in the experience, the shocking and impressive emergence of one's unconscious desires and traumata's; a state which may be experienced as cathartic or healing, and as anxiety‐provoking and confusing. Often, in clinical trials investigating psychedelics in mental health conditions, these go hand in hand. Amid a renewed, at times hyperbolic, interest in psychedelics as a potential treatment for mental ill health, significant gaps of knowledge remain. Additional studies exploring the impact of the extra‐pharmacological factors and adjunct therapeutic models on treatment outcomes are needed. Drawing from psychoanalytic perspectives, this paper explores points of intersectionality between psychedelic therapy under investigation and psychoanalysis in the context of traumatic stress. To that end, the psychedelic state will be considered an attempt to make the unconscious conscious by immersing self in a bewildering waking‐dream to better tolerate reality; immersing self in a wilful state of vulnerability, to develop trust in one's agency and capacity to trust others; immersing self in an indescribable experience to learn how to redescribe, to self and to others the traumatic past.