The taming of the shrooms. Understanding current discursive struggles over the psychedelic in the light of their historical antecedents

The article argues that current debates in psychedelic research echo older controversies from the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly the transformation of animal magnetism into a scientifically tamed phenomenon during the 'long century of mediumship'. By applying discourse analysis to key publications from the Johns Hopkins research group, the author shows how contemporary forces are systematically stripping psychedelics of their emancipatory, resistive, utopian, and spiritual connotations, pushing them toward a more controlled scientific framework.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract As the changeful history of psychedelic research and therapy since the 1950s can be assumed to be well enough known to this journal's audience, it is only recalled briefly in this article. Rarely has it been addressed, though, that the discursive struggles through which this history has been spawned have antecedents in much older controversies in the 18th and 19th centuries. As knowledge of this prehistory may shed new light on the current state of affairs in psychedelic matters, this article starts with an account of the transformations that animal magnetism underwent during the so-called ‘long century of mediumship’, transformations by which it was ultimately tamed by science. Based on this historical sensitization, the text then turns to a recent strand of the scientific debate on psychedelic therapy – to seminal journal articles from the Johns Hopkins research group – and subjects these articles to a fine-grained discourse analysis. In doing so, the inner cohesion of the forces that are currently tugging at the psychedelic, mostly pushing aside its emancipatory, resistive, utopian, and ‘spiritual’ connotations, becomes more apparent.