Psychedelics are currently attracting growing interest in psychiatry, where they are being touted as a new generation of treatments for mental health disorders. But what happens to these substances when they move from ritual, religious, or recreational contexts into clinical trials and healthcare settings? 

Drawing on insights from anthropology, this lecture will demonstrate that their effects cannot be understood in isolation from the social, cultural, and relational contexts in which they are administered. It will thus offer a critical examination of the promises—as well as the ethical, epistemological, and political challenges—of their medicalization.