Re:We can no longer ignore the potential of psychedelic drug...
by anythingnonidin on Monday June 08, 2020 @03:19PM
(#23459795)
Yes, exactly. Psychedelics have been described as "nonspecific amplifiers".
A hypothesis I have is that therapists, and their patients, already know many of the things that'll help make them happier - but the patient isn't doing them, because they lack the motivation, or they lack the belief that they're capable of making and sticking with those changes, so why bother trying.
Doing a psychedelic trip in that therapeutic context seems to make the patient motivated to make the changes that they already logically knew would be helpful, and the trip in this context makes them believe they're capable of making and sticking with those changes - so, then they end up making those changes.
But don't get confused about what's really going on.
"Set and Setting" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_and_setting
"Of course, the drug dose does not produce the transcendent experience. It merely acts as a chemical key..." — Timothy Leary (who ought to know.)
These drugs are like whacking the brain upside the head chemically. For most of us that's fun, but it's a crap shoot. "Bad trips" are a thing.
The possibilities for precision therapeutic techniques are in the creation of the set and setting, through structured storytelling.
(Not to make it about me but I did some psychedelics back in the day and they did not cure my depression but hypnotherapy did. YMMV.)