Houston Psychoanalytic Society
Study Group
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Psychedelics and Psychoanalysis |
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Facilitated by
Jamie Smith, RP(Q), MA & Lawrence Fischman, MD
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5 Thursdays
Aug. 17 - Sept. 21, 2023
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Central Time
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Live via Zoom
*Pre-Registration required for Zoom invitation
The sessions will not be recorded
Registration Fees
Active Members: $150
Student Members: $100
Non-members: $175
7.5 CEU/CME/CE credits
Instructional Level: Intermediate
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There is currently much excitement among clinicians (or dread, as the case may be) about the potential for auxiliary use of psychedelic substances to treat conditions such as trauma, severe depression, and addictions. However, there is very little information available specific to the use of psychedelics in a psychoanalytic treatment. Few clinicians have received much education or training about these substances. Except for ketamine, which is approved for medical use throughout the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere, only psilocybin is currently approved for use in a few states in the U.S. Drug trials are now being conducted to test the efficacy of various hallucinogenic substances, and the findings show promising results. However, the studies have used the substances only with short-term psychotherapy models—if they have utilized psychotherapy at all. While there is at least one case study about the use of ketamine to augment a psychoanalytic treatment, there is little literature addressing the use of psychedelics in clinical psychoanalytic practice. The available literature has examined psychedelic substances’ mechanisms of action and applied this information based on psychoanalytic theories, or it has generalized empirical studies that utilized short-term therapy or case studies that involved ketamine.
Given the expectation that more substances will be approved for medical use as soon as the coming year, it is incumbent on psychoanalytic clinicians to begin educating ourselves. We need basic knowledge about how psychedelics work in order to explore clients' psychedelic experiences that occurred outside therapy, answer client questions about trying psychedelics, make informed decisions about whether to prescribe or recommend them, and, if so, to learn their indications/contraindications, mechanisms of action, and how to integrate them into a psychoanalytic treatment. This study group will read and discuss some of the available literature, focusing on topics such as the history of psychedelics in psychiatric treatment, comparisons of psychedelic states to other dreamlike phenomena, when and how hallucinogenic substances might be helpful, their mechanisms of action, and how their effects might augment a psychoanalytic process. Please note that this study group is intended to provide some general information about the use of psychedelics in a psychoanalytic treatment, whereas our upcoming conferences are focusing more specifically on the treatment of trauma. Although there will be some overlapping content in the study group and conferences, it is expected to be minimal.
The study group will be limited to 25 registrants, and the assigned articles will be pre-circulated for each group meeting. Participants should have a basic grasp of psychoanalytic theory and be willing to commit to completing the reading assignments and attending the study group regularly. We look forward to lively and engaging discussions!
OBJECTIVES
1a) Describe the effects of compromised ego boundaries in dreams, schizophrenia, and psychedelic states.
1b) Describe how and why a psychedelic state might be considered a new ‘royal road to the unconscious.’
2a) Describe how psilocybin might help to treat depression.
2b) State at least two reasons why the therapeutic relationship is important in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
3a) Define ego dissolution and describe how it could abet a psychoanalytic process.
3b) Describe how psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy can be transformative, not just informative.
4a) Use 4 models (Solms, Friston/Carhart-Harris, Stern, and Fonagy) to explain why the sense of seeing oneself through the eyes of another is so transformative.
4b) Describe contributions to the sense of authenticity that people experience with psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
5a) Explain the concepts of states of consciousness, transformations of psyche-soma, and relationally-mediated nature of transformational experience that may occur in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
5b) Describe the role of mystical experience in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
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Jamie Smith, RP(Q), MA., BEd, OCT is a Registered Psychotherapist in Ontario, Canada currently in supervised practice at the free community clinic of the Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis, and in private practice in downtown Toronto. A Master’s Degree from York University, Toronto, on the concept of recognition in Hegel, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty’s work, as well as TICP’s 3-Year Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy certificate prepared Jamie for professional practice. He currently is Partial Load Professor at George Brown College, Toronto, and has been teaching psychology, leadership, philosophy and other subjects to adults for more than 10 years. Jamie’s adult interest in psychedelics was sparked in 2018 by Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind. He sought out psychedelic psychotherapy, which helped catalyze a career change from teaching to psychotherapy. He has attended many short trainings and read broadly on the topic. He has become involved in several projects related to infusing and clarifying the relationship between psychedelics and psychoanalysis, historically and in practice.
Lawrence Fischman, MD, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (Columbia) who practiced in New York and Maine for 36 years. In addition to his full-time private practice, he was a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and later at Tufts University School of Medicine’s Maine Track, where he also serves on the Admissions subcommittee. In 1983, he published a paper comparing psychedelic drug states with dreams and psychosis in Schizophrenia Bulletin. He retired from clinical practice in 2021 to devote more time to reading and writing about psychoanalytic perspectives on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. His paper "Seeing Without Self" is used as a foundational resource for a course on psychedelics and psychoanalysis at Fluence, where he has been teaching for the past two years. He enjoys living in Maine, and is excited by the emerging possibilities for integrating psychedelic experiences with psychoanalytically-based psychotherapy.
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Schedule/Syllabus/References |
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Aug. 17: A Comparison of Psychedelic States with Other Dreamlike Phenomena
1) Fischman, L. G. (1983). Dreams, hallucinogenic drug states, and schizophrenia: A psychological and biological comparison. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 9: 73-94.
2) Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2007). Waves of the unconscious: The neurophysiology of dreamlike phenomena and its implications for the psychodynamic model of the mind. Neuropsychoanalysis, 9: 183-211.
Aug. 24: Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelics
1) Carhart-Harris, R. L. & Goodwin, G. (2017). The therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs: Past, present and future. Neuropsychopharmacology, 42: 2105-2113.
2) Murphy, R., Kettner, H., Zeifman, R., Giribaldi, B., Kartner, L., Martell, J., Read, T., Murphy-Beiner, A., Baker-Jones, M., Nutt, D., Erritzoe, D., Watts, R., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2022). Therapeutic alliance and rapport modulate responses to psilocybin assisted therapy for depression. Frontiers in Psychopharmacology, 12: 788155.
Aug. 31: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Psychedelic Psychotherapy
1) Guss, J. (2022). A psychoanalytic perspective on psychedelic experience. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32: 452-468.
2) Fischman, L. G. (2019). Seeing without self: Discovering new meaning with psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Neuropsychoanalysis, 21: 53-78.
Sep. 14: Psychedelic-Assisted Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
1) Fischman, L. G. (2022). Seeing oneself through the eyes of another: A look at psychedelic insight. Neuropsychoanalysis, 24: 133-147.
2) Fischman, L.G. (2022). Knowing and being known: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and the sense of authenticity. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 933495.
Sep. 21: Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
1) Rundel, M. (2022). Psychedelic psychoanalysis: Transformations of the self. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32: 469-483.
2) Barrett, K. (2022). Psychedelic psychodynamics: Relational knowing and the unthought known. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32: 484-496.
SYLLABUS compiled by JoAnn Ponder, PhD, HPS Program Chair
IMAGES: Illustrations of mushroom trail/journey and Freud's office from Can Stock
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1302 Waugh Dr. #276, Houston, TX 77019
(713) 429-5810
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This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and Houston Psychoanalytic Society. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 7.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies* whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.
-Updated July 2021-
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Houston Psychoanalytic Society is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Houston Psychoanalytic Society maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
HPS, through co-sponsorship with the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, also offers approved CEUs for Texas state-approved social workers, licensed professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists.
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