Psychoanalysis and Psychedelic Medicine: Tempering the Overwhelming and the Unbearable in the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation in Children and Adults

November 18, 2023

Abstract
The avoidance of neuroscience and related treatment approaches in psychoanalytic practice has hampered the advancement of analytic theory, pedagogy, ethical open-mindedness, and most importantly, clinical efficacy. Creative clinicians and theoreticians suggesting integration (and many times re-integration) of adjunctive and often neuro-scientifically derived treatment modalities into the analytic space have been met with ongoing resistance. The recent emergence of psychedelic medical research, however, provides an opportunity to reimagine Freud’s early musings described in “A Project for a Scientific Psychology”. Psychedelic medicine is a scientific “project” that evokes the aspirational heart of Freud’s early writing: a depth-oriented, trance-induced and neuro-scientifically informed approach to the treatment of trauma.  This presentation will explore the history of psychoanalysis and psychedelic medicine, as well as current psychedelic treatment frameworks and postulated neuroscientific mechanisms of action. It will illuminate the profound similarities between the treatment modalities of psychoanalysis and psychedelic medicine as well as their capacity to complement one another.  Using clinical examples from both child and adult analytic treatments by a psychoanalytically informed ketamine-assisted psychotherapy practitioner, the discussion will focus on how the psychoanalytic emphasis on a reliable, enduring container that privileges intersubjective knowing provides a high quality, lower risk frame for psychedelic treatments. Moreover, psychedelic-assisted therapy enhances our field’s most enduring strength: that of providing an attuned interpersonal accompaniment on a journey of intensity and depth to restore and repair the unspeakable, unbearable aspects of trauma. 

Potential to Distress: Yes

Target Audience

Beginning/Introductory

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:

  • Describe the early history of psychedelic medicine in psychoanalysis
  • Describe basic changes in  neuroconnectivity and neuroplasticity associated with psychedelic treatment
  • Identify how aspects of the analytic frame enhance safety during a psychedelic experience
  • Identify the proposed mechanism of action of psychedelic medicine including a description of the default mode network, Non Ordinary State of Consciousness, and Inner Healing Intelligence
  • Describe the concept of set and setting
Course summary
Available credit: 
  • 1.50 APA
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • 1.50 ASWB ACE
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), #1744, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. ISSTD maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2021 – 08/20/2024. Social workers completing this course receive 1.50 continuing education credits.
  • 1.50 ISSTD Certificate Program
    This program is eligible for 1.50 credits in the ISSTD Certificate Program.
Course opens: 
09/01/2023
Course expires: 
12/31/2050
Event starts: 
11/18/2023 - 2:30pm EST
Event ends: 
11/18/2023 - 4:00pm EST
Part of: 
How Psychoanalytic Thinking Enriches Trauma Treatment: Toward a Meaningful Synthesis of Contributions from Psychoanalysis and Trauma Studies (2023 Psychodynamics-Psychoanalytic Virtual Seminar)
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Presenter: Charis Cladouhos, MD
Presenter Bio: Dr. Cladouhos is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with a private practice in Boston Massachusetts.  She is a faculty member of the Adult and Child Training Programs at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute and in the Department of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine.  She is course director of the Healer's Art elective for first year medical students and piloted a retreat program for traumatized health care workers, First Aid for Physicians, in collaboration with the Mind and Spirit staff at Canyon Ranch’s Wellness Facility. She is trained in EMDR and DBR and has completed the first phase of the MAPS MDMA-assisted psychotherapy training program.  She is a Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy provider and has completed the Fluence Ketamine Certificate Program. She has a special interest in integrative treatment approaches to trauma treatment within a psychoanalytic and medical framework.

Available Credit

  • 1.50 APA
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • 1.50 ASWB ACE
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), #1744, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. ISSTD maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2021 – 08/20/2024. Social workers completing this course receive 1.50 continuing education credits.
  • 1.50 ISSTD Certificate Program
    This program is eligible for 1.50 credits in the ISSTD Certificate Program.
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