A Research Digest:
Connectedness and mental health
New techniques like meditation, yoga or shamanism…, leading to modified states of consciousness, are now used by some psychotherapists as tools to help people maintain or improve their well-being or mental health. Among those techniques that have migrated from the field of spiritual practices, more or less new age, to psychologists’ offices, the use of psychedelics may be a promising treatment for psychiatric disorders or a serious support for psychotherapy. The legal limits are still a barrier for the use of these substances – such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms), ayahuasca or LSD – but in their laboratories, researchers are already studying their effects and their potential on the amelioration of mental illness. Among those, Doctor Carhart Harris and four of his colleagues from the Psychedelic Research Group of the Centre for Psychiatry of the Imperial College of London, make the assumption that the sense of connectedness which is often experienced while using psychedelics could be the key of the therapeutic potential of these substances. From collected data on a web-based survey, these researchers have shown that after 2 weeks, the psychedelic experience is correlated with increased social connectedness and psychological well-being. In another study, 17 patients, who were successfully treated for depression with psilocybin, appointedtheir renewed sense of connection as a decisive mediating factor. Those feelings of connection, that are also mentioned in scientific literature as « unitive experience » and often bounded to a sense of « ego-dissolution », are described as inner experiences of connection to the Self, connection to the others, or connection to nature or to the world in general. They are experienced during the active effects of the psychedelic but their positive impacts last for several weeks or more.
As a result, it seems that connectedness could be a major target to improve many psychiatric disorders; furthermore, it has been observed that a sense of disconnection often accompanies many of them, especially depression.
Beyond its use in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, the sense of connectedness is a promising topic of research for psychology, because of its implications as an existential experience, as well as in its biological basis, whether they are activated by the use of psychedelics or not.
Words I have learned :
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- Connectedness : connectivité, ou reliance
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- To make the assumption: faire l’hypothèse
- to appoint: nommer