Psychedelic Birth: Bodies, Boundaries and the Perception of Pain in the 1970s

Abstract

Why is psychedelic culture dominated by privileged white men?' asks historian Mike Jay, referring to a recent study of psychedelic users who are more than likely to be college-educated white males. 1 This appears logical, given the figureheads (such as Timothy Leary) who attained cult-like status half a century ago. Many today continue to view psychedelics as a symbol of the hedonism of the counterculture rather than a form of therapeutic treatment. Yet recent attention to the potential of psychedelic drugs (MDMA and psilocybin) to effectively treat mental health conditions such as PTSD has raised new interest in the history of psychedelics and spiritual growth. Despite the absence of women in the psychedelic narrative, attitudes about gender, pain and the body played a pivotal role in how spiritual transcendence was

Acid feminism: Gender, psychonautics and the politics of consciousness

“…In attempting to offer some possible priorities for a feminism engaged with psychedelics I hope that the provocations I make here, in advocating for an acid feminism interested in psychedelics as experimental, political tools as well as technologies for personal development and transcendence, also go some way to opening up conversations about the role of feminism in the psychedelic community and field. Beyond merely extending the volume of women working in and speaking to the field, important work is already underway to revise the history of psychedelic research and put women’s ‘hidden’ contributions to the front and centre of the field (Dubus, 2020; Dyck & Chacruna Institute, 2018; Kline, 2020), in addition. Further than this, however, more could be done to highlight women’s first-person accounts of using psychedelics experimentally, not least by revising the typical canon of literature associated with the figure of the psychonaut to include texts by women, such as the diaries of Anaïs Nin, below.…”

Corrigendum

“…The funding acknowledgement was erroneously left out in [1], [2], [3] and [4], and should have read:…”