Paper short abstract:

Drawing on ongoing cross-disciplinary research of ayahuasca and medicinal psychedelics, the paper explores the shifting rhetorics and discourses of psychedelics. We highlight the tensions and challenges associated with western medicinal orthodoxy and what constitutes 'public good' in healing.

Paper long abstract:

Anthropology's engagement with indigenous practices and use of psychedelics, especially ayahuasca, is extensive. In contrast, scientific research into the psychedelics has for a long time been in a hiatus and at the height of the Cold War research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics was banned. In a significant moment in 2014, the American Scientific published an editorial calling for an end to the scientific research ban. The growing acknowledgement of the therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances for treating mental health disorders and addiction is undoubtedly entering the scientific mainstream and a number of clinical trials are in progress at various universities. Though there is increasing research attention, however, medicinal psychedelics present many challenges to how healing and wellbeing is approached and conceptualised within western medicinal orthodoxy. Drawing on ongoing research into the use of psychedelic therapies and the Global Ayahuasca Project, we highlight the challenges of conceptualising and engaging with alternative therapeutic models and the complex and negotiated space-making that emerges with cross disciplinary collaboration and engagement with government and civil society actors. Beyond highlighting the epistemological and methodological synergies and disjunctures that collaboration between anthropology, psychiatry and sociology solicit, the paper explores the shifting rhetorics and discourses of psychedelics and the call for reframing what constitutes 'public good' in the domains of health, medicine and healing.