Turn On, Tune In, and Heal Together: Culture, Interaction Rituals, and Collective Self-Transformation in Psychedelic-Assisted Group Therapy with Individuals with Treatment-Resistant Mental Distress

This doctoral study has been concerned with psychedelic (psilocybin) culture, its therapeutic application on group-based retreats, and its impact upon the subjective healing and self-transformation of individuals with treatment-resistant mental distress. While clinical trials suggest psychedelic-assisted therapy can be efficacious in resolving various mental health troubles, and psychedelic retreats advertise the transformative potential of psychedelics, less understood is the role that intersubjectivity plays in therapeutic outcomes. In this study, retreats were framed as a type of therapeutic community, in which culture, interaction, emotions, collective effervescence, and social connection were investigated as aides to the psychedelic-therapeutic process. This research used in-depth interviews combined with autoethnographic, participant observation data to consider how psychedelic-assisted therapy, in conjunction with intersubjectivity and a therapeutic culture in retreat settings, impacted the lives of people struggling with treatment-resistant forms of mental distress and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The range of sociocultural phenomena associated with psychedelic therapy retreats were examined using micro-sociological frameworks, especially Interaction Ritual Chain (IRC) theory (Collins 2004). The research question for this study was: How are “healing” and self-transformation defined and achieved in psychedelic therapy culture, and to what extent are they impacted by intersubjective dynamics? This dissertation found that the efficacy of psychedelic therapy can be enhanced by intersubjective dynamics, and these dynamics can be analyzed by using a Symbolic Interactionist—namely an IRC—framework. The therapeutic outcomes of group-based psychedelic-assisted healing retreats were not solely attributable to the causal powers of psychedelics themselves; also crucial were the sociocultural, psychological, and emotional 3 factors allied with the overarching retreat environment, each of which impacted upon psychedelic consciousness and post-retreat “integration” practices. These factors—such as the evolution of a community (between guests), therapeutic alliance (between therapists and guests), compassionate “emotion culture” that paid deference to cultural/symbolic objects (self-transformation and healing, the collective, and psilocybin rituals), and “cultural set and setting”—operated in unification with using psychedelic mushrooms as a tool of introspection, autognosis, and self-healing. In this sense, self-transformation and healing in psychedelic-assisted group therapy was achieved collectively. This research adds to scientific knowledge in three principal areas. First, sociologists have largely neglected studying psychedelics in the 21st century, whether as cultural, subcultural, or countercultural social phenomena, or as a therapeutic modality. This dissertation thus contributes to a nascent sociology of psychedelic culture/s and therapy. Secondly, this social scientific research complements psychedelic science and psychedelic studies by investigating the sociocultural aspects attendant to psychedelic healing and self-transformation. Most research on psychedelic therapy is clinical in nature, takes place in laboratories, and is predominantly positivistic, quantitative, and focused on individual outcomes. Distinctly, this study is the first of its kind to contribute qualitative, naturalistic, and intersubjective approaches to psychedelic therapy. Thirdly, rarely has IRC theory been employed in mental health research or research on therapeutic communities. This study advances this theoretical framework by applying it to the micro-dynamics of everyday life on psychedelic retreats, the latter of which are framed as therapeutic communities. In so doing, this research underscores both the ongoing value and the limitations of IRC theory.