Abstrakt
In the early 50ies in the former Czechoslovakia, a combination of psychoanalysis and LSD became a prominent psychotherapeutic method. Psychedelics were used as therapeutic adjuvants which allowed to access unconsciousness and gain insights into maladaptive psychological mechanisms and behavior.
In this paper, we review experiences with this approach in the former Czechoslovakia. Specifically, we examine how it was used in treatment of people with psychogenic, characterogenic and sociogenic disturbances - the large group of mental health problems, the common denominator of which is that they have been learned during the course of life of an individual, they are a result of negative mental programming.
The same mechanism of functioning has been observed and deemed as effective in treatment of variety of other mental disorders, as well as in improvement of variety of life conditions in healthy individuals. We argue that psychedelic experience enable to gain insights into the way our minds were programmed which is universal to all humans , therefore this mechanism can be applied in diverse indications, not limited to the clinical use.
We discuss evidence, best practices and future directions of the use of psychedelics-facilitated insights into maladaptive psychological mechanisms and behavior. Possible adverse outcomes of the same principles in inappropriate setting will be discussed as well.