good points, glad to find a proper elucidation of your thoughts. couple reflections if you’re interested
- you’ve said elsewhere you like stimulants — perhaps when you deride “drugs”, a more appropriate term would be “narcotics”, seeing as stimulants are a drug (including nicotine alcohol and caffeine). i’d agree it’s important to point out narcotics are a plight (and an ancient one id add)
- you seem to hold the view cannabis and it’s ilk is culturally degenerate, and you may be right, however within the broader context of mass incarceration and prison fodder incentives i think it’s worth recognising the importance of challenging stigma there.
- psychedelics are not the answer, completely agree. however in comparison to alcohol they result in minuscule harm individually and collectively. they are absolutely being used culturally as a distraction from actually dealing with the content of the unconscious directly, though, more aligned with traditions of behavioralism and cognitivism than psychoanalytic traditions — i.e short term fixes producing immediate results, rather than long term fixes producing solid, lasting solutions.
- I dunno how familiar you are with Terence Mckenna, and I’m certainly not on board with much of what he produced, but something worthwhile in him I think is he emphasised personal, direct experience, sexuality, and dealing with the actual *content* of the psyche, which is as maligned a position when it comes from him as it is when it comes from Jung.
- Full agreement that vast majority of people aren’t engaging with psychedelics in healthy productive ways, however being pragmatic they’re increasingly going to be part of the psychoanalyst’s toolkit, so let’s deal with that with as much caution as it demands
good points, glad to find a proper elucidation of your thoughts. couple reflections if you’re interested
- you’ve said elsewhere you like stimulants — perhaps when you deride “drugs”, a more appropriate term would be “narcotics”, seeing as stimulants are a drug (including nicotine alcohol and caffeine). i’d agree it’s important to point out narcotics are a plight (and an ancient one id add)
- you seem to hold the view cannabis and it’s ilk is culturally degenerate, and you may be right, however within the broader context of mass incarceration and prison fodder incentives i think it’s worth recognising the importance of challenging stigma there.
- psychedelics are not the answer, completely agree. however in comparison to alcohol they result in minuscule harm individually and collectively. they are absolutely being used culturally as a distraction from actually dealing with the content of the unconscious directly, though, more aligned with traditions of behavioralism and cognitivism than psychoanalytic traditions — i.e short term fixes producing immediate results, rather than long term fixes producing solid, lasting solutions.
- I dunno how familiar you are with Terence Mckenna, and I’m certainly not on board with much of what he produced, but something worthwhile in him I think is he emphasised personal, direct experience, sexuality, and dealing with the actual *content* of the psyche, which is as maligned a position when it comes from him as it is when it comes from Jung.
- Full agreement that vast majority of people aren’t engaging with psychedelics in healthy productive ways, however being pragmatic they’re increasingly going to be part of the psychoanalyst’s toolkit, so let’s deal with that with as much caution as it demands