Nicolas Langlitz, MD, PhD, is an anthropologist and historian of science at The New School for Social Research in New York, where he founded and directs the Psychedelic Humanities Lab. He is the author of Neuropsychedelia: The Revival of Hallucinogen Research since the Decade of the Brain and Chimpanzee Culture Wars, and his work explores the culture, politics, and philosophy of psychedelics in both scientific and societal contexts. Our discussion touched on the tension between medicalization and broader cultural ambitions, the importance of set and setting, and the challenges of standardizing psychedelic treatment. We also explored the room for psychedelics outside of the medical realm. 

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The questions:

00:00 Intro 00:05 Nicholas, can you talk about your professional background? 01:32 Some people say they are moving too fast. And there is an overhype of psychedelics. What do you think about that? 05:15 In your book, you write that psychedelics have the promise of moksha in the age of soma. 08:57 It seems nowadays the psychedelic movement has less ambitions, than in the 60s. So they don’t want to change the world, they just want to medicalize these substances. 11:17 Can we make psychedelics a standardized medical treatment? They come with so much spiritual and metaphysical baggage. 13:21 Unlike traditional antidepressants, in the case of psychedelics, it is very important in what environment you use drugs and in what mental states. Can you explain us the role of set and setting? 18:58 Some people would keep psychedelics under strict medical supervision. But do you think there is a room for psychedelics outside of the medical realm? 22:24 Is there no alternative to the biomedical model? 24:49 Timothy Leary has another idea about training people how to use psychedelics and giving out licenses such as driving licenses. That could be a secularized model to regulate these substances. What do you think?

Reporter: Péter Sárosi
Video: István Gábor Takács

Filmed at the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research (ICPR) 2024 in Haarlem, The Netherlands.