The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy


Book Description

The rise—and fall—of research into the therapeutic potential of LSD. After LSD arrived in the United States in 1949, the drug's therapeutic promise quickly captured the interests of psychiatrists. In the decade that followed, modern psychopharmacology was born and research into the drug's perceptual and psychological effects boomed. By the early 1960s, psychiatrists focused on a particularly promising treatment known as psychedelic therapy: a single, carefully guided, high-dose LSD session coupled with brief but intensive psychotherapy. Researchers reported an astounding 50 percent success rate in treating chronic alcoholism, as well as substantial improvement in patients suffering from a range of other disorders. Yet despite this success, LSD officially remained an experimental drug only. Research into its effects, psychological and otherwise, dwindled before coming to a close in the 1970s. In The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy, Matthew Oram traces the early promise and eventual demise of LSD psychotherapy in the United States. While the common perception is that LSD's prohibition terminated legitimate research, Oram draws on files from the Food and Drug Administration and the personal papers of LSD researchers to reveal that the most significant issue was not the drug's illegality, but the persistent question of its efficacy. The landmark Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments of 1962 installed strict standards for efficacy evaluation, which LSD researchers struggled to meet due to the unorthodox nature of their treatment. Exploring the complex interactions between clinical science, regulation, and therapeutics in American medicine, The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy explains how an age of empirical research and limited government oversight gave way to sophisticated controlled clinical trials and complex federal regulations. Analyzing the debates around how to understand and evaluate treatment efficacy, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in LSD and psychedelics, as well as mental health professionals, regulators, and scholars of the history of psychiatry, psychotherapy, drug regulation, and pharmaceutical research and development.




Psychedelic Psychotherapy


Book Description

Psychedelic Psychotherapy contains valuable insiders' information for those using psychedelics for their own healing, and for practitioners who facilitate their sessions. Its focus is the nitty-gritty of healing trauma using MDMA, LSD, and psilocybin.




Psychedelic Humanities


Book Description

Psychedelics are part of a resurgence of interest in consciousness studies, especially as altered states of consciousness are being re-examined in the context of psychedelic-assisted therapies. To date, discussions about psychedelics in modern medicine have been dominated by studies in biomedicine. However, given that cultural factors play a significant role in the subjective effects of psychedelics, psychedelics can be considered a uniquely powerful point of convergence between the cultural and biomedical. Writers and artists, alongside psychiatrists and pharmacologists, have participated in shaping ‘the psychedelic experience’ by drawing on a rich set of approaches that blend narrative, arts, and humanities concepts to explain and interpret psychedelic experiences and explore consciousness for creative purposes. Psychedelic studies, past and present, emphasize the importance of ‘set and setting’ or the context of psychedelic consumption and its paramount importance in shaping psychedelic experiences. These non-pharmacological factors rely on a different set of methods and interpretations that necessarily rely on studies conducted outside of the biomedical sciences.




A Dose of Hope


Book Description

MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD is in the final stages of FDA testing. Clinical trials are reporting a 70 percent cure rate for a condition that claims thousands of lives globally every day-hundreds in the US alone. But until it's fully legalized, MDMA is still a Schedule I drug, saddled with years of misunderstanding, misinformation, and misuse. In this groundbreaking, informative, and easy-to-read book, Dr. Dan Engle shows you the treatment through the eyes of a fictional patient so you can see how it works without ever setting foot in a doctor's office. Follow in-depth conversations between doctor and patient, learn about the history of MDMA-assisted therapy, understand how and why it helps, and experience the process for yourself-without ever having to take anything.  The treatment presented here is a synthesis of the real experiences and stunning results happening today in trials around the world. Whether you or a loved one suffer from PTSD, or you just want to heal something that's keeping you from living your best life, don't miss A Dose of Hope.




Psychedelics and Psychotherapy


Book Description

• Examines the therapeutic potential of expanded states, underground psychedelic psychotherapy, harm reduction, new approaches for healing individual and collective trauma, and training considerations • Addresses challenging psychedelic experiences, spiritual emergencies, and the central importance of the therapeutic relationship • Details the use of cannabis as a psychedelic tool, spiritual exploration with LSD, micro-dosing with Iboga, and MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD Exploring the latest developments in the flourishing field of modern psychedelic psycho-therapy, this book shares practical experiences and insights from both elders and newer research voices in the psychedelic research and clinical communities. The contributors examine new findings on safe and skillful work with psychedelic and expanded states for therapeutic, personal, and spiritual growth. They explain the dual process of opening and healing. They explore new approaches for individual inner work as well as for the healing of ancestral and collective trauma. They examine the power of expanded states for reparative attachment work and offer insights on the integration process through the lens of Holotropic Breathwork. The contributors also examine the use of cannabis as a psychedelic tool, spiritual exploration with LSD, microdosing with Iboga, treating depression with psilocybin, and MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD. Revealing diverse ways of working with psychedelics in terms of set, setting, and type of substance, the book concludes with discussions of ethics and professional development for those working in the field as well as explores considerations for training the next generation of psychedelic therapists.




Philosophy of Psychedelics


Book Description

Recent clinical trials show that psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin can be given safely in controlled conditions, and can cause lasting psychological benefits with one or two administrations. Supervised psychedelic sessions can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and addiction, and improve well-being in healthy volunteers, for months or even years. But these benefits seem to be mediated by "mystical" experiences of cosmic consciousness, which prompts a philosophical concern: do psychedelics cause psychological benefits by inducing false or implausible beliefs about the metaphysical nature of reality? This book is the first scholarly monograph in English devoted to the philosophical analysis of psychedelic drugs. Its central focus is the apparent conflict between the growing use of psychedelics in psychiatry and the philosophical worldview of naturalism. Within the book, Letheby integrates empirical evidence and philosophical considerations in the service of a simple conclusion: this "Comforting Delusion Objection" to psychedelic therapy fails. While exotic metaphysical ideas do sometimes come up, they are not, on closer inspection, the central driver of change in psychedelic therapy. Psychedelics lead to lasting benefits by altering the sense of self, and changing how people relate to their own minds and lives-not by changing their beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality. The upshot is that a traditional conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be reconciled with naturalism (the philosophical position that the natural world is all there is). Controlled psychedelic use can lead to genuine forms of knowledge gain and spiritual growth-even if no Cosmic Consciousness or transcendent divine Reality exists. Philosophy of Psychedelics is an indispensable guide to the literature for researchers already engaged in the field of psychedelic psychiatry, and for researchers-especially philosophers-who want to become acquainted with this increasingly topical field.




Psychedelic Medicine [2 Volumes]


Book Description

A collection of essays examining the current status of the therapeutic potential of hallucinogenic substances, exploring how the drugs can be used to effectively treat a wide range of conditions.




Quantum Change


Book Description

Most of us walk through each day expecting few surprises. If we want to better ourselves or our lives, we map out a path of gradual change, perhaps in counseling or psychotherapy. Psychologists William Miller and Janet C'de Baca were longtime scholars and teachers of traditional approaches to self-improvement when they became intrigued by a different sort of change that was sometimes experienced by people they encountered--something often described as "a bolt from the blue" or "seeing the light." And when they placed a request in a local newspaper for people's stories of unexpected personal transformation, the deluge of responses was astounding. These compelling stories of epiphanies and sudden insights inspired Miller and C'de Baca to examine the experience of "quantum change" through the lens of scientific psychology. Where does quantum change come from? Why do some of us experience it, and what kind of people do we become as a result? The answers that this book arrives at yield remarkable insights into how human beings achieve lasting change--sometimes even in spite of ourselves.




The Oxford Handbook of Hypo-egoic Phenomena


Book Description

Egoicism, a mindset that places primary focus upon oneself, is rampant in contemporary Western cultures as commercial advertisements, popular books, song lyrics, and mobile apps consistently promote self-interest. Consequently, researchers have begun to address the psychological, interpersonal, and broader societal costs of excessive egoicism and to investigate alternatives to a "me and mine first" mindset. For centuries, scholars, spiritual leaders, and social activists have advocated a "hypo-egoic" way of being that is characterized by less self-concern in favor of a more inclusive "we first" mode of functioning. In recent years, investigations of hypo-egoic functioning have been examined by psychologists, cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, and philosophers. Edited by Kirk Warren Brown and Mark R. Leary, The Oxford Handbook of Hypo-egoic Phenomena brings together an expert group of contributors to examine these groundbreaking lines of inquiry, distilling current knowledge about hypo-egoicism into an exceptional resource. In this volume, readers will fi nd theoretical perspectives from philosophy and several major branches of psychology to inform our understanding of the nature of hypo-egoicism and its expressions in various domains of life. Further, readers will encounter psychological research discoveries about particular phenomena in which hypo-egoicism is a prominent feature, demonstrating its implications for well-being, regulation of emotion, adaptive decision-making, positive social relations, and other markers of human happiness, well-being, and health. This Handbook offers the most comprehensive and thoughtful analyses of hypo-egoicism to date.