Psychedelics as Existential Medicine
Date
2024-10-04
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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ORCID
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
A growing body of scientific evidence has shown that a subset of drugs called “classic psychedelics” are capable of enabling positively transformative experiences for those suffering from certain pathologies as well as for otherwise psychologically healthy people. While the clinical evidence surrounding their safety and efficacy is promising, the main causal mechanism through which psychedelics facilitate these positive outcomes is not yet fully understood. The aim of my thesis is to investigate these enigmatic drugs and offer some philosophical concepts which might shed light on their transformative power. In Chapters 1 and 2, through the work of Chris Letheby, I sift through several theories regarding what the causal mechanism of these psychedelic experiences might be that enables subjects to achieve positive outcomes. After narrowing down the necessary variable of the phenomenological experience itself, I unpack Letheby’s theory, which posits that it is experiences involving alterations to self-representation wherein the self is taken to be mutable and open to revision that constitute the main causal mechanism through which psychedelic therapy enables positive outcomes. In Chapter 3, I outline the significant similarities between the types of experiences which Letheby believes are central to psychedelic therapy’s positive outcomes, and an existentialist understanding of what it means to be a human being. Subsequently, through the work of Simone de Beauvoir, I introduce several existential concepts (the naïve state, the moment of liberation, bad faith) in order to theorize how some of these experiences involving alterations to self-representation might be enabling positive outcomes. Ultimately, I argue that psychedelics can be viewed as existential medicine through their capacity to liberate subjects from naïve forms of dysfunctional or stagnant self-representation, and through enabling direct and honest confrontations with bad-faith flights from responsibility. In Chapter 4, I then argue that, if psychedelics truly do work as existential medicine in the manner that I speculate they do, then there are ramifications for how we ought to understand several relevant pathologies. Specifically, I argue that certain ways of understanding these pathologies can in fact be harmful in oppressing those who are suffering by mystifying them into believing that they cannot be otherwise. Finally, I argue that if we accept de Beauvoir’s ethics and our duty to will freedom, and if psychedelic therapy continues to prove to be a safe and effective tool for the treatment of several psychopathologies, then psychedelic therapy ought to be made a safe, legal, and accessible form of therapy for those who satisfy the proper psychological and hereditary conditions.
Description
Keywords
Psychedelics, Existential Medicine
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Philosophy
Program
Philosophy