Psychedelic Therapy as Form of Life

Psychedelic therapy, which combines psychedelic drugs with psychotherapy, is re-emerging as a potential treatment for mood disorders and addictions. The ethics of this therapy involve not just how psychotherapies change when paired with psychedelics, but how the therapies are shaped by values, norms, and metaphysical commitments. Based on published literature and interviews with seven psychedelic therapists in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia, the article examines patient autonomy, mechanisms of therapeutic action, and which therapies pair best with psychedelic substances. It compares this emergent form of life with ayahuasca use in Amazonian shamanism.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract In the historical context of a crisis in biological psychiatry, psychedelic drugs paired with psychotherapy are globally re-emerging in research clinics as a potential transdiagnostic therapy for treating mood disorders, addictions, and other forms of psychological distress. The treatments are poised to soon shift from clinical trials to widespread service delivery in places like Australia, North America, and Europe, which has prompted ethical questions by social scientists and bioethicists. Taking a broader view, we argue that the ethics of psychedelic therapy concerns not simply how psychotherapies are different when paired with psychedelic drugs, but how psychedelic therapies shape and are shaped by different values, norms, and metaphysical commitments. Drawing from the published literature and interviews with seven psychedelic therapists working in clinical trials in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia, this article opens the black box of the treatments to consider the values and informal debates currently animating the therapies. Considering questions of patient autonomy, mechanisms of therapeutic action, and which therapies are best suited to pair with psychedelic substances, we examine the ethics of psychedelic therapy as an emergent form of life. To bring this form of life out in fuller relief, we conclude by comparing and contrasting it with ayahuasca use in Amazonian shamanism.