Critical Doses: Nurturing Diversity in Psychedelic Studies

ABSTRACT

In this introduction to the thematic issue Critical Psychedelic Studies we argue that many and diverse critical analyses of psychedelic cultures and practices are needed to counter the current hype around the biomedicalization of psychedelic substances. The social sciences and humanities offer insights and methods to resist appropriation and to establish community based ethical practices. The assembled articles and book reviews indicate an urgency and vitality of research aimed at growing psychedelic cultures outside the medico-pharmaceutical complex, offering inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives. Critical psychedelic studies challenge hegemonial or colonizing knowledge practices in historical and contemporary psychedelic discourse. Bringing together insights from the different original contributions we reflect on power relations in the psychedelic revival. In this article we argue against field definitions and in favour of diverse and agile formations of consciousness and praxis. We provide critical ideas for deconstructing both the patriarchal colonial legacies and the contemporary power dynamics focussed on wealth creation that characterize today's psychedelic revival.

KEYWORDS:

• psychedelics
• psychedelic revival
• decoloniality
• biomedicalization
• critical studies
• feminism
• power relations
• hype

Acknowledgements

The contributions to this thematic issue were collected from two conference panels organized by the editors at two different conferences of the Society for Social Studies of Science as well as a call for papers. We thank the authors for their excellent contributions and the peer reviewers who helped to achieve this, often with very short turnaround times. We also thank the editors of Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, especially Dr Tara Mahfoud, who provided reliable upbeat support throughout and helped us carry this thematic issue over the line when that line was redrawn earlier than we all had expected.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We use the term ‘subcultures’ to refer to cultural hierarchies within countries of the Global North and hierarchies between cultures that are upheld via colonial structures globally.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christine Hauskeller

Christine Hauskeller is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Exeter, UK. She holds an M.A. in Philosophy, Sociology and Psychoanalysis (University Frankfurt on Main) and a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Christine studies constellations of knowledge and power, of epistemology and ethics. Her expertise and research bridge across ethics and political philosophy to philosophy of medicine and the life sciences. She especially advances methods and concepts developed in Critical Theory and Feminism. She founded the Exeter transdisciplinary research group psychedelics studies. Recent publications include The Matrix of Stem Cell Research (Routledge 2020) and Philosophy and Psychedelics. Frameworks of Exceptional Experience (Bloomsbury 2022).

Claudia Gertraud Schwarz

Claudia Gertraud Schwarz is a postdoctoral researcher at the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Austria. She holds an M.A. in media studies and a doctoral degree in sociology (both from the University of Vienna). Claudia's research focuses on the sociopolitical dynamics and ethical dimensions of (re-)emerging scientific fields and technologies, the role of psychedelics and other healing modalities in society, gender studies and feminism, and the entanglements of science, spirituality, and art. She also works as science communicator and seeks to change society for the better through her activism such as the #WeDoSTS movement that she started in the field of Science, Technology, and Society studies.