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Short abstract:

STS should not shy away from the hype but take responsibility for affirming the transformative potential of psychedelic research. STS theories are perfectly suited to this end since their ontological, epistemological, ethical and political assumptions perfectly synergize with psychedelic experience.

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.