Psychoanalytic perspectives on psychedelic therapy – a recording of our webinar with Jeffrey Guss now available

What do psychedelics have to offer for dealing with existential crises? What are the correspondences between psychotherapy and shamanic healing? How can psychoanalytic perspectives enrich our understanding of psychedelics, and vice versa? In May 2023, we were led to explore these questions with psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher and teacher Jeffrey Guss, whose experience includes working with psilocybin in a study for patients suffering from existential anxiety related to life-threatening illness.

The presentation begins with a description of psychedelic experiences that are not in the context of psychotherapy and describe correspondences between psychotherapy and shamanic healing. Guss then discusses the core processes that may occur as part of psychedelic psychotherapy, describing psychedelic phenomeonlogy in psychoanalytic and neuropsychoanalytic terms. In the last part of his talk, he offers a case presentation of a participant he worked with in the aforementioned study, and integrates elements of this individual’s psilocybin journey with the core processes described at the beginning of the talk. The lecture is followed by a Q&A section.

The lecture is now available on our Youtube channel!