READ BY: Ava Pasewicz.

CITATION: Modlin, N., Stubley, J., Maggio, C., & Rucker, J. (2023). On Redescribing the Indescribable: Trauma, Psychoanalysis & Psychedelic Therapy. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 39: 551-572.

ABSTRACT: The psychedelic state can be thought about as an interdependent intrapsychic, somatic, interpersonal & spiritual happening which encourages, perhaps both to the relief & dismay of those participating in the experience, the shocking & impressive emergence of one’s unconscious desires & traumata's; a state which may be experienced as cathartic or healing, and as anxiety-provoking & confusing. Often, in clinical trials investigating psychedelics in mental health conditions, these go hand-in-hand. Amid a renewed, at times hyperbolic, interest in psychedelics as a potential treatment for mental illness, significant gaps of knowledge remain. Additional studies exploring the impact of the extra-pharmacological factors & adjunct therapeutic models on treatment outcomes are needed. Drawing from psychoanalytic perspectives, this paper explores points of intersectionality between psychedelic therapy under investigation & psychoanalysis in the context of traumatic stress. To that end, the psychedelic state will be considered an attempt to make the unconscious conscious by immersing self in a bewildering waking-dream to better tolerate reality; immersing self in a willful state of vulnerability, to develop trust in one’s agency & capacity to trust others; immersing self in an indescribable experience to learn how to redescribe, to self & to others the traumatic past.

REDESCRIBING THE INDESCRIBABLE

INTEGRATIVE DBT & PSYCHOTHERAPY