This 8-week course uses contemporary and historical sources to teach the numerous ways psychoanalysis and psychedelics have been, and are, involved with one another. We hope, also, to sketch out a roadmap deepening this important affiliation. This course is for more advanced students who possess basic clinical and theoretical knowledge of psychoanalysis, as well as basic information regarding psychedelic therapy.

We will begin with a close reading of an analyst’s overview of psychedelic therapy, including relevant neuropsychoanalytic writing. Throughout, we will offer historic (1950s–70s) papers about psychoanalytic treatment, both research and clinical work utilizing LSD and other medicines. Long dismissed for outdated, inadequate research methods, these fascinating papers are steeped in the American psychoanalysis of their time—and quite visionary as well.

Topics We’ll Explore in This Course:

• Ego dissolution, ego death, and egolytic processes

• Primary consciousness, minimal self, numinous states, and experiences of unity

• Reductions in defensiveness and the shift toward connection and unity

• Narrative self and minimal self

• Psychedelic work from a Jungian perspective

• Neuroscience insights on physiological embodiment, hyper-associative states, and the unconstrained mind

• Psychoanalysis itself as an alternative state of consciousness

• A Native American peyote ceremony through both social constructivist and psychoanalytic lenses

• Race and psychedelic consciousness

• Emerging 21st-century theories of psychedelic action

The class will have psychoanalysis as its central discourse; it will also address the phenomenology of self, narrative, identity, unity, and a bit of relevant science of neuroplasticity. We will learn from our analytic ancestors, highlighting Betty Eisner, PhD; diverse contemporary theorists and clinicians are represented.

There will be three categories of reading: Assigned, Supplemental, and Curiosity. Each week will have no more than 35–40 pages of Assigned Material. As mentioned, neither the basics of psychedelics nor psychoanalysis will be taught in this class—they are prerequisites for it. However, it is not necessary to be a psychoanalyst to take this course. Anyone interested is welcome.

It is our hope the classes will invite imagination as well as educate, creating a 21st-century vision of what psychedelics and psychoanalysis have to do with each other, and how. An intention for the class is to create community, stimulate discussion, and evoke curiosity about the world outside our familiar narratives.

A limited number of Diversity Fund scholarships are available, please complete this application, in addition to the course application.