The hyperassociative mind

"The psychedelic experience and Merleau-Ponty's "wild being

Bibliographic Data

ID4659176
AuthorsCsaba Szummer (0000-0003-4114-1689, Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary), Lajos Horváth (0000-0003-3558-7094, University of Debrecen), Attila Szabó (0000-0001-7833-8894, University of Debrecen), Ede Frecska (0000-0002-1931-6975, University of Debrecen), Kristóf Orzói (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary)
Year2017
Volume1
Issue2
Pages55-64
Publication date2017-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Psychedelic Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2559-9283 • E-ISSN: 2559-9283
PublisherAkademiai Kiado Zrt (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1556/2054.01.2017.006
OpenAlexW2736440409
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited14

Purpose In contemporary phenomenology, Dieter Lohmar has suggested that the new task of phenomenological research is to analyze the "alternative representational systems" of fantasy. In line with this program, we propose that psychedelic experience could also be suitable subject to this project subsumed under the wider category of fantasy activity. The aim of this paper is to show that psychedelic experiences offer a favorable situation to study the imagination. Method The paper applies the conceptual framework of the late Merleau-Ponty, developed in The Visible and the Invisible, using his mescaline analyses which have been elaborated in The Phenomenology of Perception. Results We demonstrate that psychedelic visions and emotional states can be discussed within the Merleau-Pontian framework of "wild world." From the viewpoint of phenomenology, we suggest that psychedelic visions represent an ongoing sense-making and Gestalt-formation process in which the role of the elaborative activity of the subject is crucial. These - often unsettling - visions show the basic volatility and ambiguity of perception and fantasy, which also sheds light to the hidden schemes of perception, thinking, and emotion of normal consciousness. Conclusions Freud claimed that dreams are "the royal road" to the unconscious. In an analogous manner, while dreams were the primary psychoscope to the unconscious of psychoanalysis, in contemporary phenomenology psychedelic experiences may show a possible way to an another kind of unconscious, the phenomenological unconscious. This unconscious comprises the hidden schemes and basic affective emotional attitudes of the knowing subject

Personal unconscious · Vision · Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy · Psychedelics and Drug Studies · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

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