Graduation Year

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

Anthropology

Major Professor

Daniel H. Lende, Ph.D.

Committee Member

E. Christian Wells, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Heide Castañeda, Ph.D., MPH

Committee Member

Khary Rigg, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Shana Harris, Ph.D.

Keywords

chemoethnography, community, liminality, pleasure, recreational substance use, set and setting

Abstract

Clinical interest in psychedelic treatments in the United States started in the 1950s, but anti-drug policy and anti-social sentiments quickly thwarted future research. The last decade has renewed clinical interest in using psychedelics to treat a diversity of mental health ailments. While these studies provide essential protocols, treatments, and therapy models for patients, they are limited in understanding the role of the contextual elements that influence psychedelic experiences and outcomes. This project examines how people use psychedelic substances outside medical settings by studying transformative psychedelic experiences at music events. This inquiry into psychedelic use utilizes an integrated framework of chemoethnography from environmental studies with classic drug use literature and anthropological studies on indigenous and pharmaceutical healing practices to consider the assemblages, entanglements, and mechanisms that contribute to meaningful experiences. Additionally, this study addresses the need for information on how people use psychedelics outside medical settings and how these uses can be therapeutic. As clinical settings individualize treatment, music festivals provide a contrasting environment to identify additional contextual factors and how they contribute to creating these experiences. The results of this dissertation stem from 18 months of fieldwork consisting of 38 interviews, 523 survey responses, and over 650 hours of participant observation. This research finds that the carefully crafted spaces of music festivals featuring art, music, and community vibe are essential to initiating liminal experiences and allowing festival goers to fully embody the pleasure of the psychedelic experience. The entanglements of the music festival and the psychedelic experience give way to complex and supportive social lives that function as therapy management groups through conversations of support and care before, during, and after the experience. This unique environment has the potential to support therapy, healing, and transformation. Participants report the value of these experiences through long-term changes in their internal process of self-reflection and changes in everyday life. This research sits on the cutting edge of anthropological theory by pushing the field towards an “anthropology of the good.” It investigates these experiences to inform future treatment opportunities in addressing the needs of the suffering subject while bringing attention to the diversity of modalities in therapy and healing.

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