2022/04/19 by Chiara Caporuscio · 1 voice
Psychology · Medicine · Arts and Humanities · #Psychedelics and Drug Studies #Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies #Mental Health and Psychiatry
paper · pdf · doi:10.33735/phimisci.2022.9310
openalex publication_date 2022/04/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Chris Letheby’s defence of psychedelic therapy hinges on the premise that psychedelic-facilitated insights about the self are in a better epistemic position than those about the external world. In this commentary, I argue that such a claim is not sufficiently defended. More precisely, I argue that one element is underexplored in Letheby’s otherwise compelling picture: namely, that unlike new beliefs about the external world, beliefs about oneself have the capacity to turn into self-fulfilling prophecies. Recognising the psychedelic experience and the subsequent integration process as opportunities not only to apprehend certain facts about the self but also to actively shape and redetermine those facts is key to understanding the epistemic differences between insights patients have about themselves and about the external world.