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Ayahuasca is a psychedelic brew originating from the Amazon in South America. Commonly associated with religious use among indigenous and mestizo populations, ayahuasca has made its way to the United States, where it is currently criminalized as a Schedule I drug. Nevertheless, a church in the United States provides ayahuasca to its members as both a sacrament and tool for healing through spiritual retreat weekends. Based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with church members, volunteers, and staff in 2023, this thesis examines how members perceived the healing they experienced during multiple ayahuasca ceremonies and interactions with church volunteers and staff. By examining their personal experiences and the extra-drug variables of set and setting, I argue that members received guidance about the next steps in life from the ayahuasca experience itself and from the post-ceremony integration process led by the church. Members often saw this guidance as a path toward mental healing. In addition, members’ ayahuasca experiences were influenced by their intentions for drinking the brew and the overall supportive setting provided by volunteers and staff members. This thesis contributes to the growing body of literature on the renewed interest in psychedelic use for therapeutic purposes in the global north by analyzing ayahuasca use in the unique setting of a spiritual retreat in the United States.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-11-14T11:55:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 João Antônio Pentagna de Moraes.pdf: 1404168 bytes, checksum: f08e09c0bd2e4dd2782eaee952cc8d9f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-14T11:55:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 João Antônio Pentagna de Moraes.pdf: 1404168 bytes, checksum: f08e09c0bd2e4dd2782eaee952cc8d9f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-10-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Fundação São Paulo - FUNDASP / The present work explores the concerns that have arisen in the field of clinical psychology, precisely in the ethical and political implications of the psychoanalytic unconscious. Research problem: how does that thing, which we call unconscious, work? It begins with 4 vectors: the psychedelic experience, the artistic process, psychoanalysis and philosophy. In psychedelia, we point out the dangers, the misunderstandings, the alienating fascinations, the bankruptcies of the surface, as well as the power of new assemblages between bodies that produce sages, auditions, ways of life. In other words, multiple effects on the production of an experimental unconscious that boils with micro-perceptions, but also requires a program, an activity to sustain exploration. In the artistic process, the Van Gogh case is taken. His letters and pictures are examined in an attempt to evaluate the conditions that inflamed, accelerated, and those that paralyzed his creation, making him ill. It is possible to notice that if, on the one hand, the painter's desire suffered control of the gregarious forces of the family and of the capital, on the other hand, it was involved and composed of elements which were immanent in his environment: the mistral wind, the sun, the wheat fields, the sunflowers, the dead painters. There arises another power of the unconscious: precisely virtuality. In the third vector, two concepts of psychoanalysis are problematized: the perverse-polymorph (codified by the structural logic) and the Principle of nirvana (mortified by the repetition of the same.), considering its consequences for analytical theory. A micropolitical and vitalistic unconscious is then outlined. Finally, in the passage through fluctuations of mood and confused ideas, in the work on the affections, the body without organs emerges as a conceptual personage, a theme buried in the psychoanalytic institutional history with its conception of desire based on lack and negativity. In the last vector, which has been called philosophical, even though it concerns more specifically the transcendental empiricism of Gilles Deleuze, the aim is to trace the obscure genesis of this potential body before it even appears, considering the conditions in which it comes, examining the possibility of using it as a measure determinable by its procedural exercise, implicated in the incessant evaluation of our compositions. Ethical virtue of the unconscious / O presente trabalho explora inquietações surgidas no campo da psicologia clínica, precisamente nas implicações éticas e políticas suscitadas pelo inconsciente psicanalítico. Problema de pesquisa: como funciona isso que chamamos de inconsciente? Parte-se de 4 vetores: a experiência psicodélica, o processo artístico, a psicanálise e a filosofia. Na psicodelia, apontam-se os perigos, os mal-entendidos, as fascinações alienantes, as falências da superfície, bem como a potência de novos agenciamentos entre corpos que produzem vidências, audições, modos de vida. Ou seja, efeitos múltiplos na produção de um inconsciente experimental, que fervilha com micropercepções, mas também exige um programa, uma atividade para sustentar a exploração. No processo artístico, toma-se o caso Van Gogh. Examinam-se suas cartas e quadros, na tentativa de avaliar as condições que inflamavam, aceleravam, e aquelas que paralisavam a criação, fazendo-o adoecer. Percebe-se como o desejo do pintor, se, por um lado, claudicava pelo controle de forças gregárias da família e do capital, por outro, envolvia-se e se compunha com elementos imanentes ao seu meio: o vento mistral, o sol, os campos de trigo, os girassóis, os pintores mortos. Surge outra potência do inconsciente: precisamente, a virtualidade. No terceiro vetor, problematizam-se 2 conceitos da psicanálise: o perverso-polimorfo (codificado pela lógica estrutural) e o Princípio do nirvana (mortificado pela repetição do mesmo), considerando suas consequências para a teoria analítica. Esboça-se, então, um inconsciente micropolítico e vitalista. Enfim, na passagem por flutuações de ânimo e ideias confusas, no trabalho sobre os afetos, emerge como personagem conceitual o Corpo sem Órgãos, tema soterrado na história institucional psicanalítica com sua concepção de desejo fundada na falta e na negatividade. Busca-se, então, no último vetor que se chamou filosófico, porém mais especificamente diz respeito ao empirismo transcendental de Gilles Deleuze, traçar a obscura gênese deste corpo potencial, antes mesmo dele aparecer, atentando para as condições em que ele advém, examinando a possibilidade de utilizá-lo como medida determinável por seu exercício processual, implicada na incessante avaliação de nossas composições. Virtude ética do inconsciente

Mikrodosering av psykedeliska droger är den senaste trenden som verkar ha fått en stor spridning, främst bland unga människor för att uppnå ökad produktivitet och kreativitet, men även för att uppnå allmän psykisk hälsa. Denna uppsats lägger fokus på lysergsyradietylamid (LSD) och psilocybin (magic mushroom). Mikrodosering innebär att användaren tar en väldigt låg dos av substansen. Dosen ger ingen psykedelisk effekt, d.v.s. inga visuella effekter, inget förändrat medvetandetillstånd,och ingen förändrad tids-eller rumsuppfattning. Deltagare (n=201) besvarade en elektronisk enkät som distribuerades i olika forum med intresse för psykedeliska substanser. I denna deskriptiva sambandsstudie undersöktes motiveringen av att mikrodosera LSD-och psilocybin, samt vilka positiva och negativa effekter mikrodosering av dessa substanser har på den psykiska hälsan.Deltagare uppgav upplevd minskad depression, ångest och stress, men att det inte var den primära anledningen till att de mikrodoserade trots att 62% hade självdiagnostiserat sig med någon form av upplevd ohälsa. De primära motiven med att mikrodosera, som angavs i enkäten, var att förbättra den allmänna hälsan, samt för att nå ökad kreativitet och produktivitet. Trots upplevda negativa bieffekter under mikrodoseringscykeln uppgav majoriteten att de ville fortsätta att mikrodosera. På grund av urvalet är studieresultatet inte generaliserbart och efterföljande undersökningar med hypoteser och frågor är att föreslå.

Psychiatry is in a crisis. Mental health disorders are on the rise worldwide and there are currently not enough efficient treatment methods that would meet the patients’ needs. Hence, the societal and economic costs of mental health problems are enormous, as well as the suffering of individuals afflicted by mental health problems. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin are substances that create an altered state of consciousness characterized by altered sensory perception and on some occasions, ego-dissolution, and mystical experiences. In recent studies, LSD and psilocybin have been shown to carry significant therapeutic potential in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders in conjunction with psychotherapy. The therapeutic effects of LSD and psilocybin have also been shown to persist for between 3-12 months post-treatment. LSD and psilocybin, like other classical hallucinogens, increase serotonin availability, which has been suggested to attenuate symptoms of anxiety and depression. In addition, LSD and psilocybin alter the activity of the default mode network, which has been suggested to be overly active in depressed and anxious patients. This essay is a literature review of the neural mechanisms of LSD and psilocybin, their potential therapeutic effects in the treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders, and how insights about said neural mechanisms may be useful in understanding the possible application of psychedelics in the treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders. In sum, recent studies have provided converging and convincing evidence on therapeutic potential of LSD and psilocybin. Yet, few conclusions on the exact neural mechanisms of how LSD and psilocybin alleviate depressive and anxiety symptoms can be made. Although the future of this research field looks promising, archaic national- and international regulations continue to be a hindrance to research into psychedelic drugs. Yet, due to the psychiatric crisis and the promising results so far, more studies in this field are warranted.

The aim of this study is to examine how psychedelic posters from the 1960’s relate to postersfrom the late 19th century Art Nouveau, and how their similarities and differences are expressed in imagery and experience. The method applied is Peter Gillgrens theory about performativity, which is how we interpret art based on its experience, and Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlöf's theory about how to interpret imagery. This applies to a selected number of posters from the 1960’s and from the Art Nouveau period that bears great similarity, after having gone through the historic background of the different eras and what connects them.The results show that there is a difference between Art Nouveau and 1960's poster art, despite their similarity, that is expressed through the imagery and experience. The posters from the 1960’s shows independence from Art Nouveau by expressing an original type of art thatcaptures the counter culture of the 1960’s, and therefore uses Art Nouveau as a way of appropriation.

Background: A recent surge in interest for psychedelic-assisted therapy has manifested itself in exponential increases of subject-related academic publications as well as broad media attention. However, a lot is still to be wished for regarding the question of how the therapy actually works. Objective: To map the current empirical literature regarding “mechanisms of change” and corresponding relevant measures of these mechanisms. Method: The present essay is a scoping review. The process involves systematically acquiring relevant literature by conducting a literature search on two different platforms, Pubmed and PsychInfo, in order to extract and map the data seen as relevant to the research question. Results: Putative “mechanisms of change” and associated measures are successfully mapped and presented in a chart as well as in a basic qualitative content-analysis. The content analysis presents three separate categories used to conceptualize different mechanisms of change: Acute subjective experience, psychological flexibility and neural flexibility. Conclusion: Psychedelic-assisted therapy involves a number of complex mechanisms of change which can be studied both from a psychological as well as neurobiological perspective. These mechanisms can be thought to be dependent on processes in the acute subjective experience and consist in the form of increased psychological flexibility. Relevant measures include psychometric instruments that can be well complemented by FMRI-data. In order to gain a better understanding of these processes regarding the way they relate to one another, what moderates their outcome on depressive symptoms and how clinical application is optimized, further research is warranted. / SammanfattningBakgrund: Ett förhöjt intresse för psykedelisk assisterad terapi har på senare tid visat sig i exponentiella ökningar av ämnesrelaterade akademiska publikationer såväl som bred medieuppmärksamhet. Det finns emellertid mycket att önska när det kommer till frågan om hur terapin faktiskt fungerar. Syfte: Att kartlägga den aktuella empiriska litteraturen angående förmodade ”förändringsmekanismer” och motsvarande relevanta mått på dessa mekanismer. Metod: Föreliggande uppsats är en omfattningsgranskning (scoping review). Processen inbergrep systematisk inhämtning av relevant litteratur genom att genomföra litteratursökningar på två olika plattformar, Pubmed och PsychInfo, för att sedan extrahera och kartlägga den data som ansågs relevant för forskningsfrågan. Resultat: Förmodade "förändringsmekanismer" och tillhörande mått kartläggs framgångsrikt och presenteras i såväl tabell som i en grundläggande kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Innehållsanalysen presenterar tre separata kategorier som används för att konceptualisera olika förmodade förändringsmekanismer: Akut subjektiv upplevelse, psykologisk flexibilitet och neural flexibilitet. Slutsats: Psykedelisk assisterad terapi involverar ett antal komplexa förmodade förändringsmekanismer som kan studeras både ur ett psykologiskt såväl som neurobiologiskt perspektiv. Relevanta mått inkluderar psykometriska instrument som väl kan kompletteras med FMRI-data. För att få en bättre förståelse för dessa processer när det gäller hur de förhåller sig till varandra, vad som dämpar deras resultat vid depressiva symtom och hur klinisk tillämpning optimeras, är ytterligare forskning motiverad.

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<p>This dissertation is a rhetorical-historiographic analysis of the emergence and dissolution of a model of therapy, one that showed promise in the 1950s as a treatment for a deadly disease (alcoholism) using a recently developed pharmaceutical drug (LSD-25). By the time this treatment model, called “psychedelic therapy,” was fully developed and ready to be tested, the rhetoric surrounding LSD in the 1960s public sphere had already turned mainstream psychiatry against the drug. Psychedelic therapy became rhetorically inextricable from the counterculture that grew out of its fringes, although its basic principles were actually borrowed from the widely-accepted Alcoholics Anonymous recovery movement. Moreover, the therapy only worked if the patient took the drug in a context designed to facilitate a particular type of experience, akin to a spiritual conversion. This method flew in the face of psychiatry’s insistence on double-blind placebo-controlled trials, which could only account for the drug’s strictly biochemical effects, regardless of therapeutic context. Through my analysis of archival sources, letters, conference proceedings, and research publications, I argue that psychedelic therapy’s failure to gain legitimacy despite its early success indicates how attributions of  rhetorical action (or lack thereof) serve to mark out the boundaries of discursive arenas. These demarcations of <em>rhetorical </em>legitimacy thus allow for disciplinary legitimacy, even while the techniques, strategies, and materials of particular rhetorical appeals circulate among disciplines and other arenas without regard for these limits of legitimate persuasion. A drug may undeniably affect a person’s behavior, but to assert that the drug is persuasive will necessarily raise questions of legitimacy that must be resolved before it can be incorporated into a set of disciplinary practices.</p>

Esta tese trata de uma parcela minoritária da arquitetura paulista que foi partícipe da Contracultura brasileira, no período de 1956-1979. O trabalho teve como eixo temático a trajetória dos arquitetos Lina Bo, Sérgio Ferro, Rodrigo Lefèvre, Flávio Império, Eduardo Longo, Vitor Lotufo e Pitanga do Amparo; constatou a singularidade de suas produções em relação ao contexto hegemônico; analisou obras exemplares dessas produções através do re-desenho e levantamentos in loco; identificou correspondências entre tendências contemporâneas internacionais e o debate de ideias e ideais com a cena cultural ampliada às áreas de música, teatro, jornalismo, literatura, artes plásticas e cinema. A autonomia teórica e crítica e o comportamento diferenciado dos arquitetos elencados, constituiu-se num questionamento ao status quo sóciocultural, à linha hegemônica da Escola Paulista Brutalista e ao Estilo Internacional. Os projetos, da denominada Arquitetura Alternativa, se distinguiram pelas soluções plásticas, uso de materiais e técnicas construtivas vernaculares ou adotando novas abordagens, repúdio à serialização ou industrialização e busca de fontes de legitimação mediante interfaces multidisciplinares. A Arquitetura Alternativa, é, portanto, uma produção à margem da hegemonia que, por integrar a Contracultura brasileira, participou da Revolução Cultural que ocorreu em diversos países ocidentais nos anos 1950 e 1970. / This thesis deals with a minor portion of the São Paulo state architecture that was part of the Brazilian Counterculture in the period of 1956-1979. The work had as main theme the trajectory of the architects Lina Bo, Sergio Ferro, Rodrigo Lefèvre, Flávio Império, Eduardo Longo, Vitor Lotufo and Pitanga do Amparo, and established the uniqueness of their productions in relation to hegemonic context; evaluated exemplary works of these productions through the re- drawing and on-site surveys; and identified correspondences among contemporary international trends and the debate of ideas and ideals with the cultural scene extended to the areas of music, theater, journalism, literature, visual arts and cinema. The theoretical and critical autonomy and the differentiated behavior of the architects listed, constituted in a challenge to the \"status quo\" social and cultural, to the hegemonic line of the \"Escola Paulista Brutalista\" and to the International Style. The designs, of the denominated Alternative Architecture, were distinguished by plastics solutions, use of vernacular materials and construction techniques or adopting new approaches, rejection to serialization or industrialization and search for sources of legitimation by multidisciplinary interfaces. The Alternative Architecture is therefore, a production on the sidelines of the hegemony, which by integrating the Brazilian Counterculture, attended the Cultural Revolution that occurred in many Western countries in the 1950s and 1970s