A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Psychedelic Experience

Introduction

Guss situates the paper within the renewed, multidisciplinary interest in psychedelics over the past three decades and argues that psychoanalysis is particularly well placed to engage with this revival. The Introduction outlines how psychedelics uniquely affect consciousness, perception, identity and meaning-making and emphasises that intentions for use and contextual factors are central to understanding psychedelic effects. Guss proposes a rapprochement between psychoanalytic theory and psychedelic practice, suggesting each can inform and deepen the other. The author explains that the paper will first canvass historical and cross-cultural uses of psychedelic substances, then focus on two core phenomena that are of primary relevance to psychoanalysts: ego dissolution (egolysis) and unconstrained, hyperassociative cognition. Through a synthesis of neuropsychoanalysis, phenomenology and neuroanthropology, the paper aims to connect brain-based findings with psychoanalytic concepts and to show how psychoanalytic settings and skills can be valuable in psychedelic therapy.