Send message to Author

Long abstract:

Conceiving of psychedelic science as a scientific-intellectual movement, this paper explores how hype functions to sustain the movement and advance its aims. Drawing on in-depth interviews with psychedelic researchers from across the United States, participant observation in psychedelic webinars and conferences, and review of scientific literature on psychedelics, I examine how scientific claims about psychedelics function as promissory capital. For instance, I trace how scientific techniques and scientists’ communications have variously contributed to the reframing of psychedelics as neurotechnologies capable of leveraging neuroplasticity to instigate transformative change in individual users. I also highlight examples wherein psychedelics’ transformative potential is tied to inflated or incomplete understandings of their effects. I specifically draw attention to scientific claims that both obscure the complex and biocultural nature of psychedelic effects and contribute to hype through reductionist, determinist, and idealist accounts of psychedelics potential to transform individuals and society. Finally, I describe how such claims can stimulate hype and help attract resources to support the field.

Following this analysis, I interrogate the role STS scholarship has to play in mitigating the effects of hype associated with psychedelic science. I look to critical neuroscience, neuroethics, critical realist approaches to mental health, and biocultural understandings of the brain to draw lessons about how STS can improve research and contribute to reflexivity in the field. Through this lens, I suggest that STS scholarship can also improve theory development in psychedelic research and help ensure ethical integration of psychedelics in society.

Send message to Author

Short abstract:

This paper considers two scholarly articulations of “psychedelic fascism.” The first claims that the fascist potential of psychedelic use is akin to that of heavy media exposure. The second refers to psychedelic use among the far-right. I claim that they both reinforce anti-scientific hype.

Long abstract:

This paper examines two conceptualizations of “psychedelic fascism.” The first is attributed to Mark Fisher, who conceived it as the fascist potential inherent in high exposure to stimulating media and hallucinogenic substances. On Fisher’s account, psychedelic fascism functions by instilling in individuals a sense that the indulgence of “passively-generated and self-damaging impulses” is an embodiment of agency and resistance to external influence. What is experienced as liberation, however, is in fact repressive, as psychedelic fascism erodes control over one’s critical faculties.

The second has been articulated in response to hype-driven claims that psychedelic experience leads to the embrace of progressive worldviews. Recognizing this notion as a potentially dangerous historical error, a handful of scholars have explored the use of psychedelics among extremist conservative groups, including but not limited to the Nazis of yesteryear and today’s neo-Nazis. This second version of “psychedelic fascism” encapsulates the phenomenon as described by those within these movements in addition to those who study them.

My paper begins by reviewing these two forms of psychedelic fascism as context for a preliminary claim: the latter’s contemporary instantiations are to some extent a consequence of the former. From there, I make my main claim: by studying this link, we may attain a more nuanced understanding of how psychedelic hype – reductive, politically disengaged, and overly optimistic depictions of psychedelic experience – inhibits scholarly awareness of these substances’ effects. As I argue, the notion that ideal psychedelic experience entails liberation from societal influence has negative implications for psychedelic science.

Send message to Author

Long abstract:

The aim of this presentation is to critically explore the narrative regarding the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and psychedelics in mental health care. I will demonstrate how the techno-optimistic narrative forecasts revolutionary advancements in treatments through AI's capacity to analyze and interpret complex datasets from psychedelic research.

This narrative, informed by socio-technical imaginaries, suggests AI's pivotal role in deciphering the complex neurological impacts of psychedelics, analyzing vast data sets to uncover patterns in brain activity and accelerating the research process. AI's capabilities in data analysis and pattern recognition are envisioned to deepen understanding of psychedelics' therapeutic effects and streamline the development of new compounds, promising a future of enhanced mental health treatments through technological innovation.

This narrative, however, often overlooks the nuanced ethical considerations, such as data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the broader socio-ethical implications. This presentation advocates for the inclusion of these critical perspectives in the dominant discourse. It emphasizes the need for comprehensive ethical frameworks, regulatory oversight, and the integration of indigenous wisdom with technological innovation to navigate the complexities of this field responsibly. By examining the potential and pitfalls of AI in psychedelic research, the presentation calls for a balanced narrative that acknowledges both the transformative possibilities and the ethical challenges, aiming to ensure that the advancements in psychedelic therapy are pursued with integrity, equity, and respect for all stakeholders involved.

Send message to Author

Long abstract:

This paper draws on ethnographic research in a recreational psychedelic economy in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Within exchange interactions and in interviews with participants, individuals often mobilize scientific ways of knowing and draw on findings from psychedelic science. These individuals care deeply for psychedelic science and its findings, for themselves, for their communities, and at times for the entire world. This care is both driven by and contributes to the hype about psychedelics. However, their hope for the promise of psychedelics is not divorced from reality but grounded in it. In tracking this grounding through social interactions, I pursue two primary questions: What can we learn from our interlocutors' care for psychedelic science? How can we care for them as they seek healing or transformation while remaining critical?

Send message to Author

Long abstract:

An STS perspective on the “psychedelic hype” can and should do more than simply describe its effects or deflate it – it must also mobilize it as an opportunity to do and view science differently. Building on a previous argument about turning the psychedelic hype into a stronger consideration of “context and care” in and out of scientific research, I will highlight the ontological, epistemological, ethical, and political twists that STS frameworks such as actor-network theory and feminist situated knowledges allow us to do on and with psychedelic science. Ontologically, such frameworks help us make sense of and legitimize the posthuman agency of psychedelic “contexts” – i.e. it is the “cosmic play” of “drug assemblages” and their many participants that we come to know through psychedelics and STS. Epistemologically, this knowledge comes not from detachment but situated involvement – the “strong objectivity” of which undoes “psychonaut’s dilemma” regarding personal use of the drugs by researchers; produces better results through the ethical care of trial participants; and is critical and ambitious when interpreting the lack of diversity in psychedelic trials (e.g. might the predominantly white demographic in psychedelic hype tell us something about “whiteness”?). Finally, STS should help us extend our care for ethical considerations to political ones by exploring the performative consequences our own research frameworks on what psychedelics become (e.g. neuroscience and neoliberalism). In all, STS should take responsibility for shaping the psychedelic hype to transformative ends rather than merely dismiss it as a fetishization of business as usual.