A Jungian Framework for Understanding Psychedelic-Induced ...
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Dissertation Proposal, PCC November 2008
A Jungian Framework for Understanding Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States
A Dissertation Proposal
Scott Hill, Ph.D. Candidate
703 Tupper St.
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
707-544-2428
Committee Members:
Sean Kelly, Ph.D., Committee Chair
Richard Tarnas, Ph.D., Committee Member
David Lukoff, Ph.D., External Committee Member
Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness
Philosophy and Religion
California Institute of Integral Studies
San Francisco
Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Abstract
Given the notable references to Jungian psychology in the psychedelic literature, on
the one hand, and the lack of in-depth treatments of psychedelic experience from a Jungian
perspective, on the other, there is a clear need to develop a Jungian framework for
elucidating the nature of psychedelic experience. The framework I envision would
highlight the nature of short-term psychotic reactions to psychedelic experience. This
framework would also indicate implications for psychedelic psychotherapy as well as the
treatment of short-term psychotic reactions to psychedelic experiences.
The paucity of in-depth theoretical treatments of the relationship between Jungian
psychology and psychedelics can be attributed to a variety of reasons, most notably Jung’s
own criticism of the use of psychedelics. Although the problems Jung identifies should be
taken seriously, I see the value of looking beyond Jung’s dismissive critique to his
psychology in order to take advantage of its penetrating insights into the nature of
psychedelic experience. The relationship of Jung’s psychology to psychedelic experience
and psychedelic psychotherapy therefore are subjects ripe for scholarly investigation and
theoretical development. This dissertation is based on an in-depth examination of Jung’s
theoretical and clinical approach to the structure and dynamics of the psyche in general and
to trauma, psychosis, psychotherapy, and integration in particular.
This dissertation could make a significant contribution to transpersonal psychology
and Jungian psychology by employing a Jungian interpretation, or Jungian hermeneutics,
of psychedelic experience. This study could also improve the practice of psychedelic
psychotherapy and the treatment of psychedelic-induced disorders.
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Table of Contents
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Historical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Early References to Jung’s Psychology in the Psychedelic Literature . . 1 Contemporary References to Jung’s Psychology in the Psychedelic Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Papers Relating Jungian Psychology to Psychedelic Experience . . . . . 3 The Need for a Jungian Framework For Understanding Psychedelic Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Research Objectives, Scope and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Research Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Scope and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Range of Psychedelic Experiences and Substances Treated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Psychological Nature of Psychedelic Experience . . . . . . . 8 The Tentative Nature of My Jungian Framework . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Hypothetical Nature of the Proposed Jungian Guidelines . . 9 The Limited Scope of the Proposed Jungian Guidelines . . . . . 9 My Approach to Trauma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Scope of Jung’s Work Treated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Psychedelics and Trauma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Psychedelically-Induced Trauma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Psychedelic Psychotherapy as Treatment for Trauma . . . . . . . 11 Traumatic Psychedelic Experiences and Childhood Trauma: A Jungian Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Psychedelics and Psychosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Psychedelics as Psychosis-Inducing Substances . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States and Schizophrenia Compared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Criticism of the Psychotomimetic Model . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The Psychotomimetic Model Reconsidered . . . . . . . . . 14
Psychedelics, Psychosis, and Trauma: The Transformative Potential . . 15 The Transformative Potential of Psychedelics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Transformative Potential of Psychotic States . . . . . . . . . . 18 Psychedelics, Psychosis, and Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Jung’s Approach to the Therapeutic Process of Integration . . . 21
The Therapeutic Value of Abreaction: Jung’s and Grof’s Views Compared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
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Literature Review (cont.)
Psychedelics, Psychosis, and Trauma: The Transformative Potential (cont.)
Psychedelic Psychotherapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The Psycholytic and Psychedelic Models . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Therapeutic Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Rationale and Plan for Completing the Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . 27 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Theoretical Perspective and Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Hermeneutics and Hermeneutical Attitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Jungian Hermeneutics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Understanding and Explanation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Three Basic Elements of This Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Chapter Breakdown and Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Tentative Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Tentative Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Research Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Secondary Jungian Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
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Historical Background
Early References to Jung’s Psychology in the Psychedelic Literature
The fact that Jung’s psychology has long been appreciated for the insights it
provides into the nature of psychedelic experience is well illustrated by the tribute Leary,
Metzner, and Alpert paid to Jung in their seminal manual, The Psychedelic Experience
(1995, pp. 19-25), which was first published in 1964 and was based on The Tibetan Book
of the Dead, to which Jung had written an appreciative commentary (1935/1953).
Leary et al. characterize Jung as a psychiatrist cum mystic who had credited The
Tibetan Book of the Dead for stimulating many of his own ideas, insights, and discoveries
(1995, pp. 20-21, 23). In their eyes, by the later part of his life, Jung had committed
himself wholly “to the inner vision and to the wisdom and superior reality of internal
perceptions” (ibid. p. 23). We can see why they would say this when we consider the
following observations that Jung made in his Psychological Commentary to The Tibetan
Book of the Great Liberation (1939/1954). The conscious mind, in Jung’s view, naturally
resists the emergence of what it experiences as, in his words, “the intrusion of apparently
incompatible and extraneous tendencies, thoughts, feelings” (par. 779). The most startling
instances of such unacceptable intrusions, Jung notes, are found in schizophrenic patients
(ibid.). But in cases such as those illuminated in The Tibetan Book of the Great
Liberation, Jung adds, “it is tacitly agreed that the apparently incompatible contents shall
not be suppressed again, and that the conflict shall be accepted and suffered. At first no
solution appears possible, and this fact, too, has to be borne with patience” (par. 780).
The relevance of such observations by Jung to my thesis can be summarized as
follows: Jung’s conception of the ego’s terrifying but potentially transformative
confrontation with unacceptable elements of the unconscious provides a uniquely
valuable theoretical framework for understanding and defining the therapeutic benefits of
what initially appear to be only psychedelic-induced eruptions of irrational and even
psychosis-inducing content from the unconscious. The conscious, rational mind naturally
resists such content as overwhelmingly alien. Through proper therapeutic integration,
however, such content can become deeply meaningful and psychologically beneficial to
the individual.
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Contemporary References to Jung’s Psychology in the Psychedelic Literature
Notable contemporary theorists, who are also former practitioners of psychedelic
psychotherapy, continue to draw upon Jung’s insights. In her treatment of psychedelic-
assisted therapy, “The New Psychotherapy: MDMA and the Shadow” (2001), Ann
Shulgin discusses ways to work with the difficult process of facing the shadow, Jung’s
term for the personality’s dark side. Besides Stanislav Grof’s work, Shulgin recommends
the writings of Jung and Jungian psychiatrist John Weir Perry to people struggling to
integrate challenging psychedelic experiences (Shulgin & Shulgin, 1997, p. 161).
Resisting such difficult experiences, says former psychedelic therapist Myron
Stolaroff, intensifies their painfulness and leads to “disturbing, unsatisfactory
experiences, or even psychotic attempts to escape” (2002, p. 97). Like Shulgin, Stolaroff
draws upon Jungian concepts of the shadow and integration in his guidelines for working
through psychic defenses that arise when someone stumbles into a difficult psychedelic
experience (ibid., pp. 94-103; Stolaroff, 1994).
Shulgin’s and Stolaroff’s treatments of encountering and integrating problematic
unconscious material in psychedelic psychotherapy provide invaluable perspectives on
working through difficult psychedelic experiences. However, their mention of Jungian
concepts lacks any direct reference to Jungian sources, let alone thorough theoretical
articulation. Shulgin and Stolaroff were both influenced by underground psychedelic
therapist Leo Zeff, who was a Jungian analyst. The only record Zeff seems to have left of
his psychedelic psychotherapy practice, however, is a published interview Stolaroff
conducted with him (Stolaroff, 2004), which unfortunately contains no explicit discussion
of the relationship between Zeff’s Jungian foundation and his practice of psychedelic
psychotherapy.1
Among contemporary theorists of psychedelic psychotherapy who draw on Jung’s
psychology, only Ralph Metzner and Stanislav Grof discuss at any length the
correspondence between their own work and Jung’s psychology. And even though both
Metzner and Grof generously draw on Jung’s theories and clinical experience to support
1 I use the generic term psychedelic psychotherapy to refer to any use of psychedelic substances with psychotherapy. There are different types of psychedelic psychotherapy, however, and I discuss them in “Psychedelic Psychotherapy,” below (p.20).
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their own extensive theoretical frameworks (Grof, 1985, 1994; Grof & Grof, 1989;
Metzner, 1998b), neither provides an in-depth presentation of Jung’s psychology
vis-à-vis psychedelic experience.
Despite numerous departures from Jung’s theories (Grof, 1985, pp. 191-192),
Grof’s own comprehensive framework for psychedelic psychotherapy shares a far-
reaching correspondence with Jung’s theories (ibid., p. 191). One common theme, which
is central to my thesis, is the ego’s problematic and yet ultimately transformative
relationship with the collective, or archetypal, unconscious. In Spiritual Emergency:
When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis, Stanislav and Christina Grof state that
Jung’s revolutionary concept of the collective unconscious and his respect for the
spiritual dimensions of psychological development provide an essential theoretical
foundation for the transpersonal view of the psychotic characteristics of spiritual
emergency represented in their anthology (1989, pp. 5, 237; see also Grof, 1985, p. 174).
Grof’s spectrum approach to explaining the nature of various realms or levels of
nonordinary experience draws from several major psychological orientations, including
the work of Freud, Rank, and Reich. Grof finds in Jung’s psychology, however, the
deepest correspondence to the domains of psychic experience he has mapped in his own
cartography of the psyche (Grof, 1985, pp. 190-192). “Although even [Jung’s] analytical
psychology does not cover adequately the entire spectrum of psychedelic phenomena,”
Grof says, “it requires the least revisions or modifications of all the systems of depth
psychotherapy” (ibid, p. 190). Grof draws most heavily on Jung’s concept of the
collective unconscious to describe what Grof refers to as the transpersonal, or Jungian,
level of consciousness manifested in the complex process described in his own theoretical
framework (1994, pp. 296-297; 1985, pp. 131, 140-141).
Papers Relating Jungian Psychology to Psychedelic Experience
A number of notable papers relating Jung’s psychology to psychedelic experience
have been published. Sandison (1954), Cutner (1959), and Fordham (1963) discuss from
a Jungian standpoint clinical studies of psychedelic psychotherapy conducted in the
1950s. Sandison and Cutner speak of the therapeutic value of LSD-assisted
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psychotherapy,2 which each of them conducted as psychotherapists. Reviewing case
studies of LSD-assisted psychotherapy, Fordham cautions that the relatively passive
process of psychedelic psychotherapy must be distinguished from the active process of
Jungian analysis, that the lasting therapeutic value of the LSD experience is slight, and
that the strongest therapeutic agent in the cases he reviewed was the transference (p. 129).
I will of course discuss these rare and important Jungian papers in my dissertation’s full
literature review. While confirming my thesis regarding the relevance of Jungian
psychology to understanding psychedelic experience, these papers fall far short of
establishing a Jungian framework for such a purpose.
More recently, four doctoral candidates have written dissertations that analyze
various aspects of psychedelic experience from a Jungian perspective. Gurnick (1990)
analyzes variations in individuals’ subjective psychedelic experience in terms of Jung’s
psychological types in order to advance understanding of the relationship between
subjective psychedelic experience and the individual user’s personality makeup. Albert
(1993) draws from Jung’s concepts of the archetypal unconscious, constellation, and
synchronicity to support specific aspects of his broad metaphysical theory of
consciousness. Albert argues that Jung’s psychology can account for the role that psychic
dynamics play in psychedelic-induced experiences of spiritual, non-spatiotemporal
realities. Heuser (2006) analyzes reports of “entity visitations” (p. 4) by ayahuasca users
and relates his analysis to Jung’s psychology as well as Grof’s transpersonal model. He
proposes that Jung’s archetypal perspective provides useful metaphorical amplification of
the symbolic content reflected in these ayahuasca reports (p. 38) and that such symbolic
content may reflect stages in the individuation process (pp. 77-78). To support this
interpretation, Heuser briefly reviews the Jungian concepts of ego and Self, archetypes,
complexes, the unity of opposites, integration, abaissement du niveau mental,
participation mystique, the shadow, psychoid processes, the hero’s journey, and ego
defenses such as projection. Oxford (2004) uses the Jungian concept of individuation as a
theoretical framework for understanding modern, nonindigenous women’s experience of
spiritual awakening induced by entheogenic, or psychedelic, plant substances. Oxford, 2 LSD stands for lysergic acid dythilamide, “a crystalline compound . . . derived from lysergic acid and used as a powerful hallucinogenic drug” (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 1996).
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like Heuser, contributes to a dialogue between Jungian and transpersonal psychology by
also drawing from Grof’s treatment of nonordinary states of consciousness.
Although all these dissertations interpret specific aspects of psychedelic
experience from a Jungian perspective, none of them investigate in depth how Jung’s
psychology elucidates the fundamental nature of psychedelic experience or the potential
of psychedelics to induce psychotic reactions. Only Heuser (2006) draws even
moderately from Jung’s primary sources; and although his analysis of psychedelic
experience vis-à-vis Jung’s psychology is broad, it lacks the depth necessary to establish
a Jungian framework for understanding the nature of psychedelic experience.
Howe’s (2008) dissertation, Integrating Theories of Stanislav Grof and C.G.
Jung, deepens the dialogue between Jungian and transpersonal psychology by, first,
comparing Grofian systems of condensed experience (COEX) and various Jungian
concepts of feeling-toned complexes; second, comparing Grofian and Jungian
interpretations of the death-rebirth process; and third, comparing Grofian and Jungian
approaches to psychotherapy. Although Howe draws much more thoroughly from Jung’s
primary sources than the other dissertation authors mentioned here, and although he
discusses Jung’s theory in terms of Grof’s psychedelic research, his treatment of
psychedelic experience per se is extremely limited. Rather, his analysis compares Grof’s
and Jung’s theories of the psyche’s structure and dynamics and therefore only implicitly
elucidates the nature of psychedelic experience.
As valuable as each of these dissertations is regarding various aspects of the
relationship between Jung’s psychology and psychedelic experience, none of them
provides a foundation for building a Jungian framework for understanding the
fundamental nature of psychedelic experience in general or of psychedelic-induced
psychotic states of consciousness in particular.
The Need for a Jungian Framework for Understanding Psychedelic Experience
The lack of in-depth treatment of the relationship between Jungian psychology
and psychedelic experience is partially due to the fact that the first generation of
psychedelic research in the 1950s and early 1960s was dominated by investigators, like
Grof at that time, with a Freudian psychoanalytic orientation. This psychoanalytic legacy
is reflected in the most recent authoritative work on psychedelic psychotherapy,
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Psychedelic Medicine: New Evidence for Hallucinogenic Substances as Treatments
(Winkelman & Roberts, 2007), which includes a psychoanalytic framework (as well as
shamanic and Grofian frameworks) for psychedelic psychotherapy but no Jungian
framework. Any interest in the Jungian community to develop a framework for
psychedelic psychotherapy has likely been inhibited by the ban imposed on psychedelic
research in the mid 1960s. Be that as it may, the paucity of references to psychedelic-
induced images or visions in the Jungian literature is remarkable. The main reason for
this curious lacuna is surely the distance Jungians have traditionally adopted to
psychedelics (Singer, 1994; von Franz, 1993), a distance that stems from Jung’s severe
criticism of psychedelic psychotherapy (von Franz, 1993, pp. 297-305).
An excellent reflection of Jung’s critical attitude toward psychedelics can be
found in his letters, several of which reflect his view that psychedelics have the potential
to open the collective unconscious to those who use them. He is quite critical of their use
for that reason, explaining that psychedelics are a shortcut into realms of the unconscious
for which the user is inevitably unprepared (Adler & Jung, 1975, p. 222). Jung also
conveys that, although he does not know from experience, he can suppose that
psychedelics could “release a latent, potential psychosis”(ibid.), adding that “it would be
a highly interesting though equally disagreeable experience” (ibid.). Jung expresses his
skepticism even more harshly in a letter to Victor White:
It is quite awful that the alienists have caught hold of a new poison to play with,
without the faintest knowledge or feeling of responsibility. It is just as if a
surgeon had never learned further than to cut open his patient’s belly and to leave
things there. (ibid., p. 173; see also pp. 229-230, 318-319, 382-383)
Although the problems Jung identifies should be taken seriously, I see the value
of looking beyond Jung’s dismissive critique to his psychology in order to take advantage
of its profound insights into the nature of psychedelic experience. I intend to do this by
investigating and discussing the concepts and principles in Jung’s psychology that are
most relevant to elucidating the nature of psychedelic experience for the purpose of
constructing a tentative Jungian framework for understanding the nature of psychedelic
experience.
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Research Objectives, Scope and Limitations
Research Objectives
Given my goals to carry out a Jungian interpretation of psychedelic experience, to
construct a tentative Jungian framework for understanding psychedelic experience, and to
propose basic considerations for a Jungian approach to treating psychedelic-induced
psychotic states, my dissertation’s specific research objectives are to elucidate the
following from a Jungian perspective:
1) the fundamental psychological nature of psychedelic experience
2) the nature of acute psychotic reactions to psychedelic experience
3) the consequent treatment implications of the above
The way in which I will accomplish these goals and objectives should become
clear in the following sections of this proposal. Before going further, however, I would
like to briefly define two basic terms. When I use the term framework, I mean a system of
concepts and principles used as a basis for interpreting, understanding, and explaining
phenomena and for guiding research and practice. The tentative Jungian framework I
envision would provide an initial basis for interpreting, understanding, and explaining the
nature of psychedelic experience, for guiding related research, and for guiding the
practice of psychedelic psychotherapy and the treatment of psychedelic-induced
psychotic states. This framework will be the result of my dissertation’s Jungian
interpretation of psychedelic experience, the tentative contents of which are outlined in
the Chapter Breakdown section, below (pp. 31-33).
When I speak of acute psychotic reactions to psychedelic experiences, I refer to a
subset of the conditions that Grof identifies as potential adverse reactions to psychedelic
psychotherapy. These include the intensification of preexisting psychiatric disorders, the
occurrence of new symptoms, and the subsequent recurrence of these problematic states
(1994, p. 153). Furthermore, Grof characterizes the psychotic style of confronting a
psychedelic experience as “exteriorization of the process, excessive use of the mechanism
of projection, and indiscriminate acting out” (1985, p. 303).
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Scope and Limitations
The Range of Psychedelic Experiences and Substances Treated
Given its astonishing variability, Grinspoon & Bakalar suggest that psychedelic
experience is as difficult to describe and classify as human experience itself (1997,
pp. 89-89). Such classic volumes as The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience (Masters &
Houston, 1966), LSD Psychotherapy (Grof, 1994), and Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered
(Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1997) admirably attempt to describe psychedelic experience
comprehensively. I, however, will limit my study to a Jungian interpretation of the most
fundamental characteristics of psychedelic experience. Within Jung’s treatment of the
conscious mind’s relationship to the unconscious, especially the archetypal unconscious,
and his treatment of related concepts such as abaissement du niveau mental, complexes,
the shadow, psychosis, and integration, Jung offers an insightful understanding of the
fundamental effects that psychedelic drugs have on the psyche, including their potential
to induce psychotic reactions. This, then, will be the focus of my study.
The range of psychedelic substances is also vast, and even within the more limited
range represented in psychedelic research, a wide variety of substances have been used
(Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, 2008a). Although different
psychedelic drugs vary in their specific effects, as a class they affect the mind in similar
ways (Nelson, 1994, p. 149-150). I will focus on the fundamental psychological effects
that psychedelics share in common rather than treating their distinctive effects.
The Psychological Nature of Psychedelic Experience
Jung’s approach to the psyche is essentially psychological rather than
physiological (1928, pars. 497-498; see also 1958a, par. 570 ), and my study will be
limited to the psychological basis of psychedelic experience.
The Tentative Nature of My Jungian Framework
Given the original nature of my investigation and the vastness and complexity of
Jung’s psychology, I can only hope that the framework I construct in this dissertation will
provide a solid basis for ongoing refinements and improvements by myself and others. It
would be unrealistic and indeed undesirable to view the results of my present efforts as
complete, much less conclusive.
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The Hypothetical Nature of the Proposed Jungian Guidelines
Although an initial Jungian interpretation of psychedelic experience can be
accomplished within the scope of this dissertation, verification of the proposed treatment
implications of my study must await formal clinical trails and, as Merkur suggests in
relation to his psychoanalytic framework (2007, p. 198), must await confirmation through
trial-and-error application in psychotherapy with individuals.
The Limited Scope of the Proposed Jungian Guidelines
I do not intend to propose a comprehensive set of guidelines for Jungian
psychedelic psychotherapy. I will only supplement existing guidelines, such as those
found in Winkelman and Roberts’ Psychedelic Medicine (2007) and in the
Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Rites of Passage Project
(2008b), by suggesting specific treatment implications that stem from a Jungian
interpretation of psychedelic experience.
My Approach to Trauma
There is an extensive body of work on the nature and treatment of trauma.
Beyond very briefly establishing the context for my discussion of trauma in my
dissertation’s literature review, I will discuss trauma entirely in Jungian terms. Within
these limits, I will investigate trauma in relation to psychedelics by considering 1)
difficult psychedelic experiences as traumatic experiences in their own right, and 2) the
therapeutic implications of the potential psychedelics have to bring past trauma to
consciousness.
The Scope of Jung’s Work Treated
As indicated in my research bibliography’s primary sources, below (p. 35), I will
focus on Jung’s core treatment of trauma, psychosis, psychotherapy, integration, and the
structure and dynamics of the psyche. Although I may occasionally refer incidentally to
any topic within Jung’s extensive body of work, my investigation of Jung’s psychology
will not address in any significant way his amplification of these central themes through
his extensive inquiry into religion, mythology, alchemy, or astrology, all of which I see as
important subjects for further inquiry following the completion of my dissertation.
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Literature Review
Psychedelics and Trauma
The relationship between psychedelics and trauma is a fascinatingly complex one
that brings to mind the proverbial power of fire to create as well as destroy. On the one
hand, psychedelic drugs have damaged many a naive and careless user. On the other
hand, when used respectfully and responsibly, psychedelic drugs have for centuries been
uniquely effective agents for healing and psychospiritual transformation (Grob, 2002a;
Winkelman & Roberts, 2007). Currently, there is a resurgence of empirical research into
the psychotherapeutic effectiveness of psychedelics, thanks in large part to the tireless
advocacy for government-approved research by public policy organizations like the
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which documents international
psychedelic research on its website (2008a). A recent Scientific American Mind review of
current research notes that “studies are focusing on psychedelic treatments for cluster
headaches, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), severe anxiety in terminal
cancer patients, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcoholism and opiate addiction”
(Brown, 2007/2008, p. 68).
Psychedelic-Induced Trauma
Psychedelic experiences can be traumatic in their own right, as suggested by the
counterculture term “bad trips,” or difficult psychedelic experiences, and as indicated by
long-established contraindications and safeguards for the responsible practice of
psychedelic psychotherapy (Cohen, 1967, p. 208 ff.; Frecska, 2007; Grof, 1994, pp.
151-154). Even difficult psychedelic experiences can have beneficial effects, however.
As the saying goes, bad trips can be the best trips, and current psychedelic literature tends
to view difficult psychedelic experiences as opportunities for psychological insight and
growth rather than intrinsically traumatic experiences (Bravo and Grob, 1996a, p. 340).3
Such optimistic views are a reflection of the great number of successfully
resolved psychedelic emergencies (Grof, 1994, pp. 314-316; Mojeiko, 2007, p. 15) as
well as the psychedelic community’s guarded posture vis-à-vis adverse reactions to
3 I anticipate that my dissertation will distinguish more clearly traumatic psychedelic experiences from difficult ones.
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psychedelics in the wake of exaggeratedly negative characterizations of these drugs in the
mainstream media since the 1960s. Given the potential for psychedelic drugs to induce
extraordinary degrees of emotional stress and even psychotic reactions of varying
intensity and duration, however, there should be no question that psychedelic experiences
can be truly traumatic (Blewett & Chwelos, 1959; Cohen, 1967, pp. 266-277; Grof, 1994,
pp. 151, 160, 310-311).
Psychedelic Psychotherapy as Treatment for Trauma
The relationship between psychedelics and trauma is usually discussed in terms of
the potential psychedelics have to bring past trauma to conscious awareness by
overcoming defenses against treatment and resistance to trauma-based memories and
feelings (Bastiaans, 1983; Grob, 2002b, p. 273; Grof, 1994, p. 28). Grof’s observations
from extensive psychedelic psychotherapy research clearly indicate the extraordinary
potential psychedelics have to facilitate insights and healing through reliving past
traumatic experiences (1994, pp. 30, 36, 74, 105, 207, 282, 285). Grof attributes the great
success he and his colleagues have had using LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) for
treating a wide range of trauma-induced disorders to LSD’s unique properties as an
abreactive agent (ibid., p. 250); and he frequently encourages therapists, whether
conducting psychedelic psychotherapy or non-drug forms of experiential psychotherapy,
to facilitate the free flow of energy and the completion of experiential gestalts—no matter
how challenging the content of those experiences—because in his view this difficult
process is inherently healing (1985, p. 381; 1994, p. 282).
Traumatic Psychedelic Experiences and Childhood Trauma: A Jungian Link
I have discovered striking parallels between threatening psychedelic-induced
images and the “archaic defenses” that Jungian psychologist Donald Kalsched has seen in
victims of childhood trauma. Kalsched (1996) has found that in response to the
unbearable pain of severe trauma, the personality can split to create an autonomous
persecutory figure, which emerges in dreams and fantasies as personified archetypal
daimonic images and which paradoxically acts to protect the personality by attacking it
(Kalsched, 1996, p. 2; Mogenson, 2005, p. 202). Kalsched’s thesis suggests that some
terrifying psychedelic-induced imagery (demons, satanic figures, and similar archetypal
figures) could be manifestations of psychic dissociations arising from past trauma.
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Psychedelics and Psychosis
Psychedelics as Psychosis-Inducing Substances
Our understanding of the relationship between psychedelic-induced psychotic
states and endogenous, or “natural,” psychosis has changed as researchers have become
more knowledgeable about the psychological effects of psychedelics. In the early 1950s,
the relationship between psychedelic experience and natural psychosis was assumed to be
so strong that the mode of investigation into the psychological effects of psychedelics
was referred to as “psychotomimetic” (psychosis-inducing or psychosis-mimicking)
because these drugs were thought to evoke a temporary “model psychosis.” And they
were thereby thought to establish a new model for understanding the biological basis of
mental illness, especially schizophrenia (Bravo and Grob, 1996a, p. 335; Grinspoon &
Bakalar, 1997, p. 6; Grob, 2002b, p. 268; Grof, 1994, p. 24).
Psychedelic-induced psychotic states and schizophrenia compared.
Harvard psychiatrist Max Rinkel summarized the psychotomimetic concept when
he concluded that “the psychotic phenomena produced were predominantly
schizophrenic-like symptoms” (quoted in Grob, 2002b, p. 271). In Psychedelic Drugs
Reconsidered (1997, pp. 245-246), Grinspoon and Bakalar outline the grounds on which
psychedelic-induced psychotic states can be compared to natural psychosis. Generally
speaking, such psychedelic states are compared with schizophrenia. Despite great
variations among schizophrenics, they share certain common characteristics such as an
abnormal sense of reality and the attribution of inappropriate meanings to situations. The
common characteristics among schizophrenics are then used as a basis for comparison to
the common characteristics among psychedelic-induced psychotic states.
Among the several classifications of schizophrenia, the most important distinction
for the purpose of comparison with psychedelic-induced psychosis is the distinction made
between acute, or reactive (short-term), and chronic schizophrenia. The consensus in the
field is that the strongest correlation is found between psychedelic-induced psychosis and
acute schizophrenia, which Grinspoon and Bakalar characterize as having “a relatively
sudden onset . . . , often in a previously normal person, [which] often ends in full
recovery after a period of several days to several months, although it may recur” (1997,
p. 245). Lukoff refers to such abrupt and relatively short-term experiences as psychotic
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
episodes with mystical features or spiritual emergencies with psychotic features (1996, p.
272). The distinction between acute and chronic psychosis is an important one for my
study of psychedelic-induced psychosis. Although I often use the term psychosis
interchangeably with the term psychotic states, and although the literature I have
reviewed often does the same, the focus of my study is on relatively temporary
psychedelic-induced psychotic states and not on chronic psychosis brought on by
psychedelics.
Having distinguished acute from chronic schizophrenia, Grinspoon and Bakalar’s
review of the relevant scholarly literature revealed a “startling resemblance between
schizophrenic and psychedelic experience” (1997, p. 248). A number of papers “find the
effects of psychedelic drugs and the symptoms of schizophrenia to be almost the same”
(ibid.) “It is not surprising,” Grinspoon and Bakalar conclude, “that psychedelic drugs
were long regarded as a potential tool of special value in the study of endogenous
psychosis” (ibid.).
They add, however, that psychedelic-induced psychosis also differs in significant
respects from schizophrenia (Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1997, p. 248). In the late 1950s and
early 1960s, after many studies comparing psychedelic experience with psychosis, most
researchers concluded that although there are symptomatic resemblances, the clinical
syndrome of psychosis as a whole is significantly different than psychedelic-induced
psychosis (Hollister, 1968, p. 122; see also Bravo and Grob, 1996a, p. 335; Grinspoon
and Bakalar, 1997, pp. 6, 248-249; Grof, 1994, p. 25). In his review of the
psychotomimetic research model, Grob notes that the central argument against that model
was forcefully articulated in 1959 by Manfred Bleuler. Bleuler argued that schizophrenia
is characterized by “the gradual and inexorable progression of a symptom complex that
included disturbed thought processes, depersonalization and auditory hallucinations,
evolving into a generalized functional incapacitation” (Grob, 2002b, p. 271).
Criticism of the psychotomimetic model.
As higher doses of psychedelics (usually 200 micrograms of LSD or more) were
tested in therapeutic applications, successful treatments became associated with
experiences of psychedelic-induced mystical states of consciousness. Many researchers
thereby discovered that psychedelics could do much more than induce temporary
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
psychoses, and the term psychedelic (“mind manifesting,” or “mind-revealing”) was
coined by Humphry Osmond to indicate that these substances could induce life-
enhancing visions and transformative experiences as well as pathological states (Grob,
2002b, p. 274-275; Grof, 1994, p. 24). The chemical psychosis model became
discredited, then, because it promoted a reductionistic view of the psychedelic experience
as an inherently pathological state and offered simplistic explanations of the biochemical
etiology of schizophrenia, which were not convincingly supported by empirical data
(Grof, 1994, p. 25).
The psychotomimetic model reconsidered.
Although issues with the psychotomimetic model are important and deserve to be
addressed, the problematic nature of the psychotomimetic paradigm does not invalidate
the need to inquire into the relationship between psychedelic experience and psychosis
for the purpose of dealing with certain psychedelic crises. Many important questions
about the relationship between psychedelic experience and psychotic states remain
unanswered (Grinspoon and Bakalar, 1997, p. 6), and some investigators renewed
investigation into that relationship in the 1980s (Fischman, 1983).
Despite good reasons for abandoning the psychotomimetic model, I think that a
reexamination of the parallels between psychedelic-induced psychotic states and natural
psychosis is worthwhile for reasons other than those traditionally advocated. To begin
with, as Grinspoon and Bakalar say, “the similarities between some kinds of psychedelic
experiences and some forms of schizophrenia, remain impressive despite the
divergences” (1997, p. 249). And Nelson notes that although theorists have abandoned
psychedelics as a model for psychosis because the psychedelic experience differs greatly
from chronic schizophrenia, the first stages of an acute psychosis show an unmistakable
resemblance to a psychedelic experience (1994, p. 150). Grinspoon and Bakalar conclude
their treatment of psychedelics and psychosis by saying:
Psychedelic experiences should not be identified with an acute endogenous psychosis, especially if the purpose is either to glorify psychotics or to denounce drug users. But it would also be a mistake to ignore the similarities. As we have seen, the overlap in symptoms is often striking, the causes might yet turn out to be related, and there might even be implications for treatment. (1997, p. 252)
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
I think we should utilize knowledge that has been gained from the
psychotomimetic model of research to increase our understanding of psychedelic-induced
psychotic states. Whereas the psychotomimetic paradigm used psychedelics to find clues
to the nature, causes, and treatment of endogenous psychosis, we can in effect turn the
chemical psychosis paradigm on its head. That is, we can use knowledge about the
similarities between natural psychosis and psychedelic-induced psychotic states as well
as knowledge about the nature, causes, and treatment of natural psychosis to provide
clues to the nature, causes, and treatment of psychotic reactions to psychedelic
experiences.
The tentative conclusion I come to in my review of the literature on psychedelics
and psychosis is that, although I need to be careful not to assume overly general parallels
between psychedelic-induced psychotic states and endogenous psychosis, there is
substantial reason to speak of acute psychotic states as one category of psychedelic
experience and to draw cautious comparisons between psychedelic-induced psychotic
states and acute schizophrenia. I am certainly not suggesting that psychedelic experience
is inherently psychotic. Nor am I saying that psychedelic-induced psychotic states are
inevitably harmful. The fact that I plan to investigate the beneficial as well as harmful
potential of psychedelic-induced psychotic states should indicate my intention to
objectively investigate such states.
Psychedelics, Psychosis, and Trauma: The Transformative Potential
Transformation is treated variously in the psychedelic literature that I have
reviewed as psychological or spiritual change, development, and healing.4 Many sources
suggest, implicitly if not explicitly, that psychological and spiritual development are both
integrally related aspects of psychedelic and therapeutic experience (e.g., Grob, 2002a;
Grof, 1994; Lukoff, Lu, & Turner, 1996; Lukoff, Zanger, & Lu, 1990; Roberts, 2001;
Stolaroff, 1994; Winkelman & Roberts, 2007). Although my discussion of transformation
will at times emphasize psychological development and will at other times emphasize
spiritual development, I do not make hard and fast distinctions between the two. I am
agnostic about the metaphysical nature of spiritual experiences and domains, and I
4 Parsing transform into trans as beyond or change and form as structure or essence, I generally think of transformation as a fundamental change in one’s personality structure.
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
therefore use the term psychospiritual transformation because I accept the change I
discuss as psychological or spiritual in nature, or as some indefinable blend of both.
In this regard, I find Jung’s psychology, with its phenomenological treatment of religious
experience, a profoundly insightful and useful guide to the psychospiritual forces that
have affected my life for so many years. In Shadow, Self, Sprit: Essays in Transpersonal
Psychology, Daniels notes Jung’s refusal to draw metaphysical conclusions from
psychological experience (2005, pp. 225); and he concludes, appropriately I think, that
transpersonal psychologists should “bracket as far as possible ALL metaphysical
assumptions in what should essentially become a phenomenological examination of
experiences of transformation” free of belief and interpretation (p. 230).
The idea of transformation runs all through Jung’s work (Samuels, Shorter, &
Plaut, 1986, p. 151). Quite generally, Jung’s concept of transformation can be
characterized as a psychological transition involving temporary regression and ego loss
as unconscious material becomes conscious in the ongoing process of a person’s
becoming more psychologically whole (ibid.). Although Jung was careful to discuss
spirituality in psychological terms, and although most of his work takes an agnostic
stance towards extrapsychic realities (Ferrer, 2002, pp. 44-45), his concept of
transformation is inherently related to what he conceived as the psyche’s “religious
function” (Samuels et al., 1986, p. 130; see also Corbett, 1996, and Edinger, 1992). In
Psychology and Religion (1938/1966), Jung characterized religion as “the attitude
peculiar to a consciousness which has been altered by experience of the numinosum”
(p. 6). For Jung it is an elementary truth that “the God-image corresponds to a definite
complex of psychological facts, and is thus a quantity which we can operate with; but
what God is in himself remains a question outside the competence of all psychology”
(1948, par. 528). Even though Jung is adamant about the fundamental role that the psyche
plays in religious experience, his agnosticism regarding supernatural realities by
definition neither denies nor affirms them (Hill, 2007b, p. 14).
The Transformative Potential of Psychedelics
Psychedelic drugs have been used for religious purposes since prehistoric times,
and traditional shamanic practices with psychedelic substances provide a context for
using psychedelics in psychotherapy (Goldsmith, 2007, p. 108; Grob, 2002a, Schultes &
16
Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Hofmann, 1992; Weil, 1986; Winkelman, 2007b, pp. 2-3; Wulff, 1997, p. 90). According
to Dobkin de Rios and Winkelman, many contemporary shamanic practitioners maintain
that psychedelics repeatedly bring about changes in people’s perception of reality that
lead to a spiritual sense of oneness with the universe (1989,
p. 4). Probably millions of individuals have had psychedelic experiences that have left
them with the conviction that they understood the nature of mystical experiences known
otherwise only by venerated religious sages (Grinspoon and Bakalar, 1997, pp. 86-88).
And finally, the transformative potential of psychedelics is supported by the assessment
of researchers who observed and analyzed tens of thousands of psychedelic sessions in
experimental and clinical studies in the 1950s and 1960s (Walsh & Grob, 2007).
Although many of those studies would not meet current empirical standards, and
therefore must be accepted tentatively awaiting further clinical research, say Walsh and
Grob, their interviews with these original researchers show that “the number, variety, and
extent of transformations that these researchers describe are dramatic” (ibid., p. 218).
Because the transformative nature of psychedelics is usually understood as a
significant, long-term psychological or spiritual change in a person’s life, we must
distinguish between profound but temporary psychospiritual experiences and experiences
that result in enduring changes in one’s personality, attitudes, world view, and behavior
(Bravo & Grob, 1996b, p. 181; Smith, 2000). Speaking in spiritual terms in his 1964
Journal of Philosophy essay “Do Drugs Have Religious Import?,” Huston Smith argues
convincingly that we must distinguish between psychedelic-induced religious experiences
and psychedelic-inspired religious lives (2000, p. 305). In his long-term follow-up study
to the Good Friday Experiment on psychedelic-induced mystical experience, Doblin used
similar standards for evaluating the religious significance of subjects’ experience. Doblin
characterizes these standards as “persisting positive effects” (2001, p. 74).
The actual duration of such transformative effects continues to be a matter of
debate in the field. Representing those who question the lasting value of psychedelic
transformations, Goldsmith suggests that even when psychedelics are proven to be
therapeutically effective, their benefits are not permanent (2007, p. 113). Stolaroff, on the 5 Smith’s essay was reprinted as a chapter in his Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals (2000). See also “Psychedelic Theophanies and the Religious Life,” Chapter 3, in the same book.
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
other hand, summarizes the individual and collective potential for transformation that
many advocates see, when he says that “psychedelics, used with good motivation, skill,
and integrity, can contribute much toward easing the pain and suffering of the world
while giving access to wisdom and compassion for spiritual development” (2002, p. 103).
Grinspoon and Bakalar observe in their review of the literature on psychedelic research
that although psychedelics are no longer seen as the key to changing the world, many
people retain a strong sense of possibilities not yet realized, “of something felt as
intensely real and not yet explained or explained away” (1997, p. 88).
The Transformative Potential of Psychotic States
Even though Jung always regarded schizophrenia as a mental disorder, he was the
first to recognize it as the psyche’s effort to heal itself and as a pathology amenable to
psychotherapy (Perry, 1999, p. 63). Jung started to recognize the healing potential of
acute psychotic episodes as early as 1914 (Perry, 1976. pp. 11-12), and one finds traces
of this insight as early as 1911 in his views on the nature and value of dreams (Jung,
1911-1912). In his essay “The Importance of the Unconscious in Psychotherapy”
(1914b), Jung describes the compensating function of the unconscious, a balancing of
conscious tendencies that plays out in so-called normal people and psychotics alike. “In
normal people the principal function of the unconscious is to effect a compensation and
to produce a balance” (ibid., par. 449), he says. “[Such] manifestations of the
unconscious in actually insane patients are just as clear, but are not so well recognized”
(ibid., par. 452). These unconscious, corrective manifestations in the mind of the
psychotic are not so readily recognized, Jung observed, because they typically present
themselves in a form that ego consciousness—in doctor and patient alike—finds
intolerably disturbing. The unfortunate consequence of such disturbing manifestations is
the too-common obstruction of what should be, in Jung’s view, “the beginning of the
healing process” (ibid., pars. 458, 465).
As Jung says in “The Structure of the Psyche,” we need to remember “the
fundamental principle that the symptomatology of an illness is at the same time a natural
attempt at healing” (1927/1931, par. 312). Jung encourages us, that is, to look at the
psychotic’s delusions without prejudice and to appreciate that through them the
individual is in fact attempting with all his or her might to bring something to completion
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
(Jung, 1914a, par. 410). Jung distinguishes the content of his patients’ delusions from
their confusion of that content with reality, and he maintains that such delusions are not
in themselves pathological. They are subjectively valid and therefore justifiable within
subjective limits (ibid., par. 412).
If the therapist can engage in an authentic, caring way with the patient and the
patient’s inner experience, the therapist may be able to see a deeply meaningful process
in what at first appears to be only a fragmented picture of strange ideas, says Jungian
psychotherapist Perry (1999). And with the support of an enlightened and engaged
therapist, the patient may be able to make the critical turn from projecting this process
onto the world to recognizing it as an expression of his or her own unconscious. If this is
possible, healing can begin (ibid., pp. 23-26, 71; see also Lukoff, 1996).
We need to ask, however, whether bringing images, delusions, and projections to
consciousness, even under the guidance of a sensitive and skillful therapist, is sufficient
for individuals struggling with the deeply disturbing material manifested in psychotic
states. To begin with, we need to understand Jung’s explanation of the psychological
process involved in such healing. We also require a more specific and complete
explanation of how such general principles are applied in the practice of psychotherapy. I
introduce these topics in the section on Jung’s approach to integration, below (p. 18).
Psychedelics, Psychosis, and Transformation
Given the great quantity of literature on the relationship between psychedelics and
psychosis, and the great quantity of literature on the relationship between psychedelics
and transformation, it is notable that relatively little literature looks at all three
elements—psychedelics, psychosis, and transformation—together. There are notable
exceptions to this rule, however.
Although he is open to criticism for romanticizing psychosis, R.D. Laing
promoted the view that psychosis is “a harrowing but revelatory and potentially
restorative mental journey with some of the same virtues as an LSD experience”
(Grinspoon and Bakalar, 1997, p. 6). Like Jungian psychotherapist Perry, Laing views
psychosis as a potential psychospiritual breakthrough, not simply a breakdown (Laing,
1979, p. 115).
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Transpersonal psychologist David Lukoff appreciates Perry’s view of acute
psychosis “as a renewal process in which the psyche is seeking to reorganize itself
fundamentally” (Lukoff, 1996, p. 271). Lukoff writes of his own “hallucinogen-induced
psychotic disorder” that began in 1971 when he was twenty-three years old (ibid., p. 278;
Lukoff, 1991). Lukoff describes what he calls his “shamanistic initiatory crisis” (1991,
p. 28) and the long process through which he was able “to integrate [his] psychotic
episode as a transformative transpersonal experience” (1996, p. 279). Lukoff went on to
develop new and valuable forms of transpersonal psychotherapy for what he calls
“psychotic disorders and spiritual emergencies with psychotic features” (1996).
Two important figures in the history of psychedelics, Ralph Metzner and Ram
Dass (formally Richard Alpert), have both dedicated their lives to realizing the
transformative potential of the psychedelic experience. And both view the experience of
psychotic states as a common element in the psychedelic experience. As Metzner puts it,
the potential for psychedelic drugs to “trigger hellish, psychotic-like trips is so well
known that they were first referred to as psychotomimetic” (1998b, p. 81). Metzner
explains, nevertheless, that when individuals experiencing a psychedelic-triggered
psychosis can yield to the recognition that they are involved in a transitional process that
has a definite purpose or “end,” they come to regard such experiences “as a necessary
purgation, accepted—even welcomed—for their transformative power” (ibid., pp. 81-82).
Ram Dass, speaking to therapists at the Menninger Clinic in the early 1970s about an
alternative framework for understanding psychosis, and alluding to insights arising from
psychedelic experience, explains that “the journey of consciousness is to go to the place
where you see that all [the different realities] are really relative [and] merely perceptual
vantage points for looking at it all” (1979, p. 129). “You have to be able to go in and out
of all of them, that any one you get stuck in is the wrong one” ( ibid.).
Transpersonal psychologist Stanislav Grof’s attitude toward psychosis was
radically influenced by his extensive psychedelic research. “In the light of LSD
psychotherapy and other powerful experiential approaches,” he says, “the concept of
psychosis will have to be dramatically revised and reevaluated” (1985, p. 315). Grof
belongs to the school of psychological thought that sees the positive potential in the
psychotic process (1985, p. 295). If properly understood, Grof asserts, the psychotic
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
process can result in personal and collective transformation (ibid.). From this theoretical
perspective, Grof suggests that it is even appropriate to use psychedelics to “intensify and
accelerate the [psychotic] process and bring it to a positive resolution” (ibid., p. 296).
Jung’s Approach to the Therapeutic Process of Integration
We find an excellent indication of Jung’s view of the psychological process
involved in healing and transformation in his essay “The Transcendent Function”
(1916/1957). Here Jung presents a theoretical foundation for the integration of activated
unconscious material, a process that essentially involves bringing it into what he calls a
constructive or synthetic relationship to consciousness. This process is usually mediated
by an analyst for the patient, but it can also be done independently, as Jung did for
himself (Jung, 1963, chap. 6). By bringing together the opposites, as Jung expresses it,
the unconscious can more effectively compensate the one-sided tendencies of
consciousness, thereby creating an awareness that embraces, and thus “transcends,” both
(Perry, 1999. p. 69). The meaning and value of unconscious contents, Jung says, “are
revealed only through their integration into the personality as a whole” (1916/1957,
Prefatory Note, p. 67).
In describing the transcendent function, Jung asks a fundamental therapeutic
question that is central to integrating difficult psychedelic experiences: “What kind of
mental and moral attitude is it necessary to have towards the disturbing influences of the
unconscious, and how might they be conveyed to the patient?” (1916/1957, par. 144).
The answer for Jung is an appreciation of the inseparable relationship between
consciousness and the unconscious and the recognition of the value of unconscious
compensation. Ideally, the analyst, from his or her own experience of integration,
mediates the transcendent function for the patient and thereby helps the patient “bring
conscious and unconscious together and so arrive at a new attitude” (ibid.).
Jung explains that this method is based on evaluating symbols from the
unconscious, which he sees as “the best possible expression for a complex fact not yet
clearly apprehended by consciousness” (1916/1957, par. 148). For Jung, unconscious
material (such as a dream) transmits symbolic expression to consciousness (ibid., par.
152f.), which must in turn integrate what it experiences as its opposite aspect in order to
heal. To come to terms with the unconscious, says Jung, it is essential that the ego and the
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
unconscious come into a reciprocal relationship. “The position of the ego must be
maintained as being of equal value to the counter-position of the unconscious, and vice
versa” (ibid., par. 183).
According to Jung, such treatment renews the whole personality and penetrates
every aspect of one’s life. It means that the unconscious must be taken seriously so that it
can cooperate with consciousness—instead of disturbing it (1916/1957, par. 184). This
process becomes a kind of constructive confrontation that “generates a tension charged
with energy and creates a living, third thing. . . . So long as these [opposites] are kept
apart—naturally for the purpose of avoiding conflict—they do not function and remain
inert” (ibid., par. 189).
“Consciousness is continually widened through the confrontation with previously
unconscious contents, or—to be more accurate—could be widened if it took the trouble
to integrate them,” concludes Jung (1916/1957, par. 193). With sufficient guidance by the
therapist and with intelligence, self-confidence, and will-power on the part of the patient,
the transcendent function gives one “a way of attaining liberation by one’s own efforts
and of finding the courage to be oneself” (ibid.).
The therapeutic value of abreaction: Jung’s and Grof’s views compared.
We find another indication of Jung’s approach to integration in “The Therapeutic
Value of Abreaction” (1921/1928). In this essay, Jung criticizes the use of abreaction, or
“the dramatic rehearsal of the traumatic moment [and] its emotional recapitulation” as a
technique for treating trauma (ibid., par. 262). For Jung, the essential factor in trauma “is
the dissociation of the psyche and not the existence of a highly charged affect” (ibid., par.
266). “The main therapeutic problem,” Jung says, “is not abreaction but how to integrate
the dissociation” (ibid.).
Despite the significant compatibility between Jung’s psychology and Grof’s
approach to psychedelic psychotherapy, Grof and Jung hold intriguingly different views
of the value of abreaction. Grof highly values abreaction as an important component of
LSD psychotherapy, and he attributes the failure of abreaction reported in the psychiatric
literature to its limited and unsystematic use, to its not having been carried to experiential
extremes, which he says usually leads to a successful resolution (1985, p. 381).
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Both Grof’s abreactive approach and Jung’s integrative approach to treating
trauma would seem to have great value in understanding the nature and transformative
potential of the psychedelic experience. Given Grof’s assessment that the correct use of
abreaction usually leads to a successful resolution, it seems that psychedelic therapists
and therapists treating adverse reactions to psychedelics would benefit by considering
Jung’s integrative approach as either a complement or alternative to abreaction.
Psychedelic Psychotherapy
The psycholytic and psychedelic models.
Researchers typically identify two major models of psychedelic psychotherapy:
psycholytic and psychedelic therapies. Although this is a common and useful distinction,
the two therapies should not be reduced to an irreconcilable dichotomy because they
share common features and goals (Grof, 1994, pp. 115-116) and because many
combinations of the two have evolved in practice (Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1997, p. 196).
Early experimentation at Sandoz laboratories in the late 1940s, following Albert
Hofmann’s personal experiences with LSD, indicated that relatively small amounts of
LSD could facilitate the release of repressed unconscious material in a psychotherapeutic
setting (Grob, 2002b, p. 273; Grinspoon and Bakalar, 1997, p. 194). The term psycholytic
was coined to describe this “low-dose” model. The term’s root, lytic, which is derived
from the Greek lysis for loosen or dissolve, refers to the release of tensions by dissolving
psychological conflicts and defenses (Grof, 1994, p. 35). The low doses used in
psycholytic therapy also allow individuals to become aware of unconscious content
without overwhelming their ability to reflect and communicate (Bravo and Grob, 1996a,
p. 336). “By facilitating ego regression, uncovering early childhood memories, and
inducing an affective release,” Grob notes, “psychiatrists claimed to have achieved a
breakthrough in reducing the duration and improving the outcome of psychotherapeutic
treatment” (Grob, 2002b, pp. 273-274). Psycholytic therapy typically focuses on the
personal unconscious and avoids the transpersonal realms of the collective unconscious
(Bravo and Grob, 1996a, p. 336), and it tends to rely more on verbal psychotherapy
within psychedelic-assisted sessions as well as in non-drug preparatory and follow-up
sessions (Abramson, 1967, p. xi).
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
When higher doses started to be used, the resulting experiences tended to be
different, and a new model was developed. Initially conceived as a method of treating
alcoholics by replicating the terrifying yet occasionally transformative hallucinatory
experiences of the delirium tremens typical of alcohol withdrawal, Osmond and Hoffer
administered high-dose sessions that led to some surprising results. Contrary to their
expectations, they found that what distinguished successful treatment was the experience
of psychedelic-induced mystical states of consciousness (Hoffer, 1970, p. 360). Osmond
coined the term psychedelic (Huxley, 1999, p. 107), which means “mind manifesting,”
“mind-revealing,” or “mind-opening” (Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1997, p. 8; Grof, 1994,
p. 24; Metzner, 1998a) to distance their new approach from the traditional
psychotomimetic model. In high-dose psychedelic therapy, the psychedelic experience
itself, an extraordinarily overwhelming experience independent of verbal psychotherapy,
is considered to be the potentially significant therapeutic agent (Abramson, 1967, p. xi;
Buckman, 1967, p. 99; Ditman & Bailey, 1967, p. 75).
Grof’s extensive theoretical work notwithstanding, Grinspoon and Bakalar
suggest that the theoretical basis for the effectiveness of psychedelic therapy is less
developed than the theoretical basis for the effectiveness of psycholytic therapy (1997,
p. 194), which is in effect an extension of the therapist’s underlying psychotherapeutic
orientation. (Psycholytic therapy traditionally has a psychoanalytic orientation. See, for
instance, Leuner, 1983, and House, 2007, p. 185). The often overwhelming experience of
psychedelic therapy potentially brings about an ego-dissolving mystical experience that
drastically changes one’s perception of oneself and the world. Like the non-drug-induced
spiritual conversions that these experiences resemble, such effects are notoriously
resistant to theoretical explanation (Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1997, pp. 194-195).
My dissertation will interpret these two models of psychedelic psychotherapy in
terms of Jungian concepts and principles.
Therapeutic frameworks.
Because most theorists see psychedelics as adjuncts to psychotherapy rather than
healing agents in their own right, the therapeutic value of psychedelics is generally
assumed to be significantly affected if not wholly determined by the nature of the
therapy, the quality of the therapist, and the depth of integration and implementation of
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
the experience (Buckman, 1967, p. 88; Bravo and Grob, 1996a, p. 337; House, 2007,
pp. 179-184; Masters and Houston, 1970, p. 335; Victor, 1996, p. 331). Given the
importance of these extra-pharmacological factors, the therapist’s theoretical framework
clearly has a significant influence on his or her practice of psychedelic psychotherapy.
Too often in the past, the underlying therapeutic orientation remained implicit in
discussions about the nature, methods, and effectiveness of psychedelic psychotherapy
(Buckman, 1967, p. 99). With publications like Psychedelic Medicines (Winkelman &
Roberts, 2007), which surveys major theoretical frameworks, this situation seems to be
improving. With many theoretical and methodological questions in need of investigation
(Goldsmith, 2007, p. 109), and with theoretical differences leading to differences in
therapeutic practice (Samuels, 1986, p. 11), we have good reason to be explicit and clear
about the theoretical frameworks underlying psychedelic psychotherapy.
Masters and Houston maintained that by 1970, although most therapists
conducting psycholytic therapy were psychoanalysts, success with psychedelic-assisted
psychotherapy had been reported by hundreds of therapists of various persuasions using a
diverse range of established psychotherapeutic procedures from many countries of the
world (1970, pp. 323-324). In 1967, Blair noted that the different theoretical approaches
represented by conference papers on LSD psychotherapy was astounding (Buckman,
1967, p. 99; see also Ditman & Bailey, 1967, p. 75). In a 1969 review of psychedelic
psychotherapy, Caldwell points out that the tendency of therapists to borrow techniques
from each other and rapidly develop their own approach makes classification of distinct
types of psychedelic psychotherapy difficult (p. 122). In 1996 Bravo and Grob reported
that there was no standard procedure for psychedelic psychotherapy (1996a, p. 337).
Despite the profusion of underlying, and often only implicit, therapeutic
frameworks, and despite the consequent difficulty of classifying approaches to
psychedelic psychotherapy, Caldwell suggested in his 1969 review that some general
trends could be noted (p. 122). Given the lack of standardization and the probable extent
of unofficial psychedelic psychotherapy practiced today, it would still seem difficult if
not impossible to classify what one can imagine is an exuberant profusion of underlying
frameworks. As Caldwell has suggested, however, some general trends can be identified;
and drawing principally from Winkelman and Roberts (2007), I close my literature
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
review with a brief overview of today’s most prominent frameworks for psychedelic
psychotherapy.
1. Psychoanalytic: Psychedelic psychotherapy research between 1950 and the mid
1960s was dominated by a psychoanalytic orientation, and this is most evident in papers
on psycholytic therapy (Abramson, 1967, p. xi; Buckman, 1967, pp. 84-85; Leuner, 1967,
1983). Although some psychoanalytically-oriented practitioners expanded their
framework to include a wider range of orientations when they found the psychoanalytic
framework too limited for the extraordinary variety of experiences and unconscious
content they encountered in many psychedelic sessions (Grof, 1994), the psychoanalytic
framework still holds a significant place in the literature (Merkur, 1998, 2007). However,
it seems to have lost its eminence in the light of more recent approaches, all of which
were developed out of intimate experience with psychedelics. The most prominent of
these are listed below.
2. Grofian: The most authoritative, in-depth, and comprehensive framework for
psychedelic psychotherapy has been constructed by Stanislav Grof and articulated in his
definitive LSD Psychotherapy (1994; see also Tarnas, 1976), which includes a discussion
of the nature, treatment, and transformative potential of psychedelic-induced psychotic
states. In another definitive work, Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death and Transcendence in
Psychotherapy (1985), Grof emphasizes the beneficial potential of the acute psychotic
process (ibid., p. 295). If properly understood and worked through, Grof asserts, the
psychotic process can result in personal and collective transformation (ibid.).
3. Shamanic: Prohibitions on experimental and clinical research with psychedelics
has increased the importance of other kinds of research on their healing potential. An
important form of alternative research has been the cross-cultural study of the use of
psychedelics, sometimes called sacred medicines, by indigenous peoples throughout the
world who have long used psychoactive plants for healing and spiritual purposes (Grob,
2002b, pp. 282, 285; Grof, 1984, p. 17). Such studies of indigenous practices, which are
generically referred to as shamanic, will hopefully contribute to the beneficial use of
psychedelic medicines within contemporary cultures lacking this knowledge and
experience (Dombrowe, 2005; see also Calabrese, 2007; Metzner, 1999, 2002a, 2002b;
Winkelman, 2007a). Indeed, such a synthesis of ancient wisdom and modern science
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
could have far-reaching consequences for the health of our planet, which is currently in
acute crisis (Grof, 1984, pp. 10, 21).
4. Hybrid: The cross-cultural study of indigenous healing with psychedelic
substances has led to new forms of group-based psychedelic psychotherapy that combine
elements of shamanic ritual healing with principles of transpersonal and psychedelic
psychotherapy (Marsden & Lukoff, 2007, p. 287; Metzner, 1998a). Metzner calls such
combined forms of psychedelic psychotherapy “hybrid shamanic psychotherapeutic
rituals” (Metzner, 1999, pp. 40-42; see also Metzner, 1998a). Conducting sessions as
neither shaman nor therapist, the group guide attempts to create conditions that help
“establish a conscious and growth producing link between the participant and the
hallucinogenic experience” (Marsden & Lukoff, 2007, p. 287).
Rationale and Plan for Completing the Literature Review
I intend to complete this literature review by, first, drawing more extensively from
the detailed review of the psychedelic literature in my first comprehensive exam paper on
psychedelics, psychosis, and transformation. I plan to discuss terminology (e.g.,
psychedelics vs. hallucinogens and other terms), to define psychedelics, to summarize the
recent historical and cultural context of psychedelic use (thereby giving context to the
Jungian community’s attitude toward psychedelics), to review new research on
psychedelic psychotherapy, and to discuss in more detail psychosis, the relationship
between psychedelic experience and schizophrenia, the distinction between psychosis and
psychotic states, psychedelics as psychosis-inducing substances, the transformative
potential of psychedelic-induced psychotic states, and reconsideration of the
psychotomimetic model.
Second, I intend to review in more detail primary sources that discuss early
research on psychedelic psychotherapy from the 1950s and early 1960s. This more
extensive and specific review will build a more complete context for the discussion of a
Jungian approach to psychedelic psychotherapy. This review of the early literature will
include several highly relevant papers from a Jungian perspective by Sandison (1954),
Cutner (1959), and Fordham (1963).
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
With the exception of these several rare Jungian papers on psychedelic
psychotherapy, most of the analysis of Jungian psychology vis-à-vis psychedelics will
fall outside the literature review.
And finally, as I implied but did not make explicit in the Scope and Limitations
section above, I intend to very briefly establish the context for the discussion of trauma in
this dissertation by reviewing the general literature on trauma, independent of this
dissertation’s specific discussion of trauma vis-à-vis psychedelic psychotherapy and
Jungian psychology. While it seems important to establish a broad context for the
discussion of trauma, the general literature on trauma is vast, and I will need to be careful
to keep this section of the literature review concise so as not to exceed the limitations of
this dissertation.
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Significance
In the Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology, Bravo and Grob
close their review of psychedelic psychotherapy by stressing the need for new paradigms
(1996a, p. 340). There are, as I have suggested throughout this proposal, many reasons to
develop a Jungian framework. Others in the field of psychedelic psychotherapy have also
indicated the usefulness of a Jungian framework. House, who recently examined
psychedelic experience in relation to various psychotherapeutic approaches, says that
Jung’s concepts of the collective unconscious and its archetypal symbols “provide a
useful framework for understanding the powerful symbolic imagery commonly
experienced in psychedelic sessions” (2007, p. 185). Masters and Houston, authors of The
Varieties of Psychedelic Experience (1966) and seasoned psychedelic psychotherapists,
view what they call the “Symbolic level” of consciousness in psychedelic experience as
having exceptional therapeutic potential (1970, p. 335). At the Symbolic level, they say,
individuals participate in mythic dramas that represent the essentials of their condition
and that effect deep and sweeping personality changes (ibid.). A Jungian framework
would certainly elucidate this important level of psychedelic experience.
Given the circumstances I have outlined thus far, the relationship of Jung’s
psychology to psychedelic experience and psychedelic psychotherapy seem to be subjects
ripe for scholarly investigation. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that an
investigation of Jung’s approach to the therapeutic process of integrating challenging
unconscious material can yield a unique and valuable framework for understanding the
nature of psychedelic experience, for guiding psychedelic psychotherapy, and for treating
psychedelic-induced psychotic states.
Such an investigation, by enriching the future practice of psychedelic
psychotherapy, could also contribute to the field of transpersonal psychology. I can
imagine, for instance, that a carefully articulated Jungian framework for integrating
psychedelic experiences could become a useful element within Grof’s more
comprehensive framework, just as Grof’s framework could one day find its place in an
even more comprehensive therapeutic system. Bridging Jung’s approach to trauma and
integration with the practice of psychedelic psychotherapy could also contribute to the
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
growing effort to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), within which there is a
growing interest in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (Mithoefer, 2007).
This investigation could, in addition, contribute to the field of Jungian
psychology. Psychedelic experiences, like dreams, fantasies, and myths, include
manifestations of the archetypal unconscious (Hill, 2005). In The Archetypes and the
Collective Unconscious, Jung says that he had for years investigated “the products of the
unconscious in the widest sense of the word, namely dreams, fantasies, visions, and
delusions of the insane” (1959, p. 183). It seems therefore that Jungian psychology today
would benefit by widening the scope of unconscious material that it investigates to
include the rich material manifested in psychedelic-induced images, visions, and
delusions.
Beyond the potential contributions to these fields, this inquiry has already proved
to have great personal value. I came to California Institute of Integral Studies in 2002
with the goal of understanding as deeply as possible the life-changing and still haunting
psychedelic-induced psychotic states that I experienced some forty years ago. I have
written numerous papers analyzing my psychedelic experiences from a wide range of
theoretical perspectives,6 and all of them have been personally valuable. I have, however,
acquired especially profound insights into my experience from a Jungian perspective.
Consistent with David Lukoff’s suggestion (1996, pp. 275-276), the process of
articulating the archetypal dimensions of my psychedelic-induced psychotic states in a
paper exploring parallels between those states and myths of death and rebirth from a
Jungian perspective was a profoundly integrative process. That paper, Manifestations of
the Archetypal Unconscious: Parallels in Myth and Personal Experience (Hill, 2003c),
launched my extended inquiry into Jungian psychology that has become more deeply and
joyously significant with each additional Jungian-related paper I have written (Hill,
2007a, 2007b, 2008). I eagerly look forward to extending this inquiry through the kind of
in-depth investigation that a dissertation permits.
6 I have over the last six years studied my own psychedelic-induced psychotic states from the standpoint of Stanislav Grof’s model of the psyche, Ralph Metzner’s theories of psychedelic-induced psychospiritual transformation (including his work with shamanic and hybrid frameworks), dualistic and exultant Christian theologies, Advaita Vedanta, Jung’s theory of the archetypal unconscious, Tarnas’s archetypal astrology, and Hegel’s dialectic.
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Theoretical Perspective and Methodology
As I have indicated, I plan to interpret psychedelic experience from the theoretical
perspective of Jungian psychology for the purpose of constructing a tentative Jungian
framework for understanding and explaining the nature and significance of psychedelic
experience, for guiding research on psychedelics, and for guiding the practice of
psychedelic psychotherapy and the treatment of psychedelic-induced psychotic states. My
fundamental method of investigation can be characterized therefore as a Jungian
interpretation of psychedelic experience, or a Jungian hermeneutics.
Hermeneutics and Hermeneutical Attitude
When I speak of hermeneutics, I mean a method of interpretation of a text or
anything broadly considered as text. Text understood in a broad sense refers to anything
that carries meaning, including manifestations of psychological states of mind, such as
dreams (Palmer, 1969, p. 43). In my study, the subject of my interpretation will of course
be psychedelic experience, or more specifically psychedelic-induced images, visions, and
psychotic states.
Having already looked at the nature of my own psychedelic-induced psychotic
states of consciousness from a variety of theoretical perspectives,7 I have discovered that
psychedelic experience can be understood quite differently when analyzed from various
theoretical perspectives. Although this sounds patently obvious when stated here, the
actual process of uncovering distinct aspects or properties of the same psychedelic
experiences through the application of different theoretical perspectives has been
revelatory for me. Given the lack of any thorough treatment of the nature of psychedelic
experience from a Jungian perspective, and given the value that I have discovered of
analyzing psychedelic experience from different theoretical perspectives, I have good
reason to think that a Jungian interpretation of psychedelic experience will provide new
and significant insights to others investigating the nature of psychedelic experience.
My ongoing effort to understand the nature of psychedelic experience through the
application of different theoretical perspectives is consistent with the conception of
hermeneutics as an understanding that arises out of an ongoing dialogue or interaction
7 See footnote 5, p. 26.
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
with a text, where again text can be understood broadly to include psychological
experiences. Such an inquiry pursues a kind of truth altogether different than that defined
by such criteria of scientific methodology as experimental verification and replication
(Ferrer, 2002, p. 58). Such an inquiry involves a transformative engagement with one’s
subject of study (ibid.) and a participation in and an openness to the meanings and truths
conveyed in what one is trying to understand (Bernstein, 1983, p. 137).
I do not consider all interpretations as equally valid, however. In The
Hermeneutics of Postmodernity, Madison outlines a set of methodological principles
(e.g., coherence, comprehensiveness, and penetration) that suggests useful criteria for
evaluating the quality of an interpretation (Madison, 1988, pp. 29-35). And in Entering
the Circle: Hermeneutic Investigation in Psychology, Packer and Addison outline another
useful set of guidelines for evaluating an interpretation, some of which are especially
appropriate for my dissertation, including an interpretation’s pragmatic value and
emancipatory potential (1989, pp. 286-287).
For Gadamer, “a consciousness formed by the authentic hermeneutical attitude
will be receptive to origins and entirely foreign features of that which comes to it from
outside its own horizons” (quoted in Bernstein, 1983, pp. 137-138). I find this an
appropriate attitude for interpreting the nature and significance of psychedelic
experience, especially psychedelic-induced psychotic states. This challenge is reflected in
Bernstein’s statement that “the problem . . . is how to understand and do justice to
something that at once strikes us as so strange and alien and yet has sufficient affinity
with us that we can come to understand it” (ibid., p. 141).
Jungian Hermeneutics
Jungian hermeneutics can be characterized broadly, then, as the interpretation of
the nature and significance of psychological experience from a Jungian perspective. Jung
was concerned primarily with understanding and explaining the meaning of
psychological experience rather than its empirical quantification (Clarke, 1992, p. 42).
Despite his frequent proclamations of empiricism, that is, Jung’s whole approach to
psychological life was fundamentally interpretative and explanatory, and thus
hermeneutic. From his early writing on schizophrenia, Jung claimed that careful
interpretation can reveal coherent meaning even in apparently absurd manifestations from
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
psychotic patients (1907, par. 35; 1914a, pars. 399-412). In his Two Essays on Analytical
Psychology, Jung explicitly equates what he calls his “synthetic or constructive process
of interpretation” with “the ‘hermeneutic’ method” (Jung, 1966, par. 131).
Jung felt that this hermeneutic method does more justice to “the almost
overpowering profusion of fantastic symbolization” manifested in schizophrenia than
does an analytical-reductive approach (1914a, pars. 389-390). Jung’s hermeneutic
approach seeks not so much to understand how and why the psyche has come to its
current psychotic condition. It assumes rather that the psyche is going through a process
of becoming. “The constructive standpoint asks how, out of this present psyche, a bridge
can be built into its own future. . . . The question is: What is the goal the patient tried to
reach through the creation of his [delusional] system?” (ibid., pars., 399, 408). Jung
encourages us, that is, to look at the individual’s delusions without prejudice and to
appreciate that through them the individual is in fact attempting with all his or her might
to bring something to completion (par. 410). Distinguishing the content of the
individual’s delusions from his or her confusion of that content with reality, Jung
maintains that such delusions are not in themselves pathological. They are subjectively
valid and therefore justifiable within subjective limits (par. 412). The synthetic-
constructive method, Jung says, “must follow the clues laid down by the delusional
system itself” (ibid., par. 421).
Understanding and Explanation
Given the centrality of understanding and explanation in my study, and given my
implicit assumption that these two approaches to knowledge are complementary, I would
like to discuss briefly, first, their historical separation in the philosophy of science into
what Strasser characterizes as “contrasting epistemological attitudes” (1985, p. viii), and
second, Jung’s use of both understanding and explanation.
Traditionally, the term explanation has been reserved for the empirical sciences
and associated with the formation of general laws. As Strasser says, “whenever we can
subsume the individual case under a universal law, we say that we have ‘explained’ it”
(ibid., p. 2). The term understanding, on the other hand, has been set apart traditionally
for the humanities and has been associated with the interpretation of meaning in texts or
other expressions of human life including ideas, emotions, and thoughts (ibid., pp. 4- 6;
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Clarke, 1992, pp. 42-45). Understanding human beings implies more than observation, as
one would observe particles in physics, say; understanding human beings implies
“grasping the meaning and significance of their words and actions” (ibid., p. 43).
Understanding also implies a concern for particular persons (ibid.). Jung articulates this
explicitly in a passage on knowledge versus understanding:
The statistical method shows the facts in the light of the ideal average but does
not give us a picture of their empirical reality. . . . The distinctive thing about real
facts, however, is their individuality. . . . Hence it is not the universal and the
regular that characterize the individual, but rather the unique. (1958b, p. 17)
Jung of course developed generalizations about psychic structures and processes
based on his association experiments, his psychotherapeutic practice, and his own self-
analysis (Fordham, 1978, p. 3), but these generalizations have not so much the character
of explanatory empirical laws as a provisional attempt to understand the meanings of
manifestations of the human psyche (Clarke, 1992, Chapter 3). Jung adopted both
epistemological attitudes in a way that was complementary rather than contradictory.
This adoption was shaped no doubt by his dual role as scientist and psychotherapist. As
he continues arguing for the importance of the individual in the passage just cited, we can
hear the voice of both the scientist and the psychotherapist speaking.
At the same time man, as member of a species, can and must be described as a
statistical unit; otherwise nothing general can be said about him. . . . This results
in a universally valid anthropology or psychology, as the case may be, with an
abstract picture of man as an average unit from which all individual features have
been removed. But it is precisely these features which are of paramount
importance for understanding man. If I want to understand an individual human
being, I must lay aside all scientific knowledge of the average man. (1958b, p. 18)
The complexity and nuance of Jung’s methodology is consistent with the
contemporary hermeneutic attitude reflected in Strasser’s concept of the “spiral of
understanding,” which rejects an epistemological dichotomy between understanding and
explanation and sees them in a dialectical relationship, wherein understanding interacts
with explanation to refine, enrich, and broaden knowledge. (1985, pp. 31-33).
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Three Basic Elements of This Investigation
I have said that this study investigates the concepts and principles in Jung’s
psychology that are most relevant to elucidating the fundamental nature of psychedelic
experience. I would now like to clarify the way in which my hermeneutic analysis relates
to this investigation by outlining its three basic elements.
My investigation is based primarily on authoritative statements from relevant
literature about the nature of psychedelic experience. Here are two very abbreviated
examples of the kind of definitions, descriptions, and characterizations I use: In
Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered, Grinspoon and Bakalar (1997) state that a psychedelic
drug “more or less reliably produces thought, mood, and perceptual changes otherwise
rarely experienced except in dreams, contemplative and religious exaltation, flashes of
vivid involuntary memory, and acute psychoses” (p. 9). And in LSD Psychotherapy, Grof
(1994) characterizes psychedelics as “nonspecific catalysts and amplifiers of the psyche”
(p. 11).
To support and illustrate the authoritative statements, which are inevitably rather
abstract, I use occasional case-study accounts of specific psychedelic experiences by
researchers and therapists working with individuals who have used psychedelic
substances. I also use occasional first-person accounts by individuals who have used
psychedelic substances themselves.
And, finally, I interpret and discuss the authoritative statements and descriptive
accounts in terms of Jung's psychology. This hermeneutic element naturally makes up the
major portion of this investigation.
I do not mean to suggest that these three elements appear in the regular order I
have outlined here, or that all parts of this investigation contain all three elements. I only
want to clarify the underlying structure of this investigation: a Jungian interpretation of
authoritative statements and descriptive accounts regarding psychedelic experience.
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Chapter Breakdown
Following a tentative outline of my dissertation’s contents, I explain here my
overall plan for treating the nature of psychedelic experience and psychedelic-induced
psychotic states from a Jungian perspective. I end this section with a tentative timeline.
Tentative Outline
Chapter One. Introduction: Jung and Psychedelics
Early Reference to Jung’s Psychology in the Psychedelic Literature
Contemporary References to Jung’s Psychology in the Psychedelic Literature
Jung and Jungians on Psychedelic Experience
The Need for a Jungian Framework
Chapter Two. Literature Review
Psychedelics and Trauma
Psychedelic-Induced Trauma
Psychedelic Therapy as Treatment for Past Trauma
Psychedelics and Psychosis
Psychedelics as Psychosis-Inducing Substances
Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States and Schizophrenia Compared
The Psychotomimetic Model: Criticized and Reconsidered
Psychedelics, Psychosis, and Trauma: The Transformative Potential
The Transformative Potential of Psychedelic Experience in General
The Transformative Potential of Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States
Views of Grof, Perry, Lukoff, Metzner, and Others
Psychedelic Psychotherapy
The Psycholytic and Psychedelic Models
Therapeutic Frameworks
Chapter Three. Fundamental Jungian Concepts Relevant to Explaining the Nature and Significance of Psychedelic Experience
Consciousness and the Collective, or Archetypal, Unconscious
Archetypes and Their Manifestation
Archetype of the Self
The Numinosum
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Psychological Rebirth
Transformation and Individuation
The Interpretation of Dreams and Other Products of the Unconscious
Chapter Four. Jung’s General Explanation of the Nature of Psychedelic Experience
Lowering of the Threshold of Consciousness
Enriched Apperception and the Limits of Integration
Psychedelic Experience and Schizophrenia Compared
The Phenomenology of the Complex
Chapter Five. The Nature of Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States
Trauma in Jung’s Psychology
Kalsched’s Theory of Trauma and the Self’s Archetypal Defenses
Trauma and Dissociation in Jung’s Psychology
Trauma and Jung’s Complex Theory
The Affective Foundation of Jung’s Psychology
Jung’s Notion of Possession by Complexes
The Shadow in Jung’s Psychology
Jung’s Concept of the Shadow
Personal and Archetypal Levels of the Shadow
The Overwhelmingly Numinous Nature of the Archetypes
Resistance to and Projection of the Shadow
The Self’s Defense Against Overwhelming Affect
Psychosis in Jung’s Psychology
Jung’s Focus on Schizophrenic Forms of Psychosis
Commonalities Between Schizophrenia and Other Conditions
Neurosis, Latent Psychosis, and Manifest Psychosis
Abaissement du Niveau Mental and Psychedelic-Induced Psychosis
The Nature of Adverse Psychological Reactions to Psychedelics
Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States
Chapter Six. Trauma, Shadow, and Psychosis: The Transformative Potential
The Healing Potential of Psychotic Experiences
The Painful Passage Through the Shadow Towards Wholeness
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Treating Trauma: Integration versus Abreaction
Trauma and Abreaction Defined by Jung
Jung on the Therapeutic Value of Abreaction
Jung’s and Grof’s Views Compared
Drawing From Both Grof and Jung
Chapter Seven. Jung’s Approach to the Therapeutic Process of Integration
The Transcendent Function
Active Imagination and Other Techniques
Chapter Eight. Jungian Psychotherapy and Psychedelic Psychotherapy
The Relationship Between Analyst and Analysand
The Goal of Individuation
Chapter Nine. Treatment Implications: A Jungian Approach to Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States and Psychedelic Psychotherapy
Discussion
After introducing the current relationship of Jung and Jungian psychology to
psychedelics, my literature review will lay a foundation for my Jungian treatment of
psychedelic experience by giving an overview of fundamental concepts and issues in the
field of psychedelic studies. I intend to focus almost exclusively on the psychedelic
literature in the literature review, leaving my Jungian interpretation of psychedelic
experience to the remaining parts of my dissertation.
I will start my Jungian interpretation by introducing central Jungian concepts and
principles that are fundamental to understanding the nature and significance of
psychedelic experience from a Jungian perspective. Then, after investigating Jung’s
conception of psychedelic experience in general, I will conduct an in-depth investigation
of Jungian concepts and principles related to trauma, shadow, and psychosis that
elucidate the nature of psychedelic-induced psychotic states. The following part on the
transformative potential of trauma, shadow, and psychosis, including an in-depth
treatment of integration and the transcendent function, will lead to the final two parts of
my dissertation, both of which will discuss the implications of a Jungian approach to
psychotherapy for the treatment of psychedelic-induced psychotic states and for
psychedelic psychotherapy (Chapter Eight, generally, and Chapter Nine, specifically).
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Tentative Timeline
Although this timeline is possible given the research and writing I have already
completed, it assumes rather ideal conditions and may therefore need to be modified.
September 15, 2008 – Proposal read by committee chair.
September 20, 2008 – Proposal circulated to other committee members.
November 1, 2008 – Student receives committee approval for proposal.
November 15, 2008 – First three chapters circulated to committee.
December 1, 2008 – Second three chapters circulated to committee.
January 1, 2009 – Last three chapters circulated to committee.
February 20, 2009 – Oral defense.
March 20, 2009 – Student receives approval from chair.
Spring 2009 – Student graduates.
Considering the real possibility that I am not able to meet these rather ideal
deadlines, I will adopt this more realistic timeline, which essentially means that I will be
graduating in the summer instead of the spring of 2009.
November 15, 2008 – First two chapters circulated to committee.
December 1, 2008 – Third and forth chapters circulated to committee.
January 1, 2009 – Fifth thru seventh chapters circulated to committee.
February 1, 2009 _ Eighth and ninths chapters circulated to committee.
March 15, 2009 _ Final draft circulated to committee.
May 1, 2009 – Oral defense.
June 30, 2009 – Student receives approval from chair.
Summer 2009 – Student graduates.
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Scott Hill Dissertation Proposal
Research Bibliography
In addition to sources listed in References, below (p. 37), and the sources I used in
my comprehensive exam on psychedelics, psychosis, and transformation (Hill, 2006),8 I
will focus my investigation into Jungian psychology on the following:
Primary Sources
Although I will surely find useful material throughout Jung’s publications, I
anticipate focusing my investigation into Jung’s psychology on the following sources.
From Jung’s Collected Works, Bollingen Series XX
Vol. 3, The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease
Vol. 4, Psychological Types (especially, chapters 2, 5, 6, 10, and 11)
Vol. 7, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology
Vol. 8, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche
Vol. 9, Part I, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
Vol. 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy
Other Primary Sources
Jung, C. (1963). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York: Vintage Books.
Jung, C. & von Franz, M.-L. (Eds.). (1964). Man and His Symbols. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co.
Secondary Jungian Sources
Samuels suggests that Jung needs the Jungians that followed him as much as they
need him because sometimes they reach compatible conclusions in a more coherent or
better documented way (1986, p. 1). Although I will draw chiefly from Jung’s primary
sources, I will also use a variety of secondary Jungian sources, including the following.
Campbell, J. (Ed.). (1971). The Portable Jung. New York: Penguin.
Chodorow, J. (Ed.). (1997). Jung on Active Imagination. Princeton: Princeton University.
Clarke, J. (1992). In Search of Jung: Historical and Philosophical Enquiries. New York: Routledge.
8 My five-page reference list for this paper is available for examination upon request.
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Corbett, L. (1996). The Religious Function of the Psyche. New York: Brunner-Routledge.
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