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Mdmareconsidered , ! MDMAReconsidered , ! ". · ' '7 I' ! · ROBERT LEVERANT* On May 17and 18, 1986, the Haight AshburyFree of a generationof young people." ' ._- Medical Clinic sponsored a national conference on the This statement, distributed under the aegis of an :_._ drag MDMA. One population that was very much in informed agency (The Haight Ashbury Free Medical .... attendance, the informed lay user, seemed to have been Clinic) and written by its director of training and educa- intentionally excluded from presenting papers and thus an tion, is as inflammatory and value embedded as the com- · ' important point of view was absent from the conference, ments of Spanish friars four centuries ago on Psilocybe The aim of this article is to present material from the point mushroom use among native populations (Ott & Bigwood of view of this population, which in the 1960's was 1978) and the testimony of Christian missionaries in the dubbed the recreational user. Despite efforts by health 1850's and 1860's against peyote use by members of the ';-i professionals and the law to change this use pattern, Native American Church (Flattery & Pierce 1965). psychedelic drugs are and have been largely employed For the most part, other speakers exhibited this same in "unsupervised" settings by lay users (Stafford judgmental attitude toward lay users, but in subtler ways .... 1985: 220). This article will explore MDMA within the For instance, the word anecdotal was used to describe ; _, context of psychology, history, politics, sociology and reports of nonsupervised MDMA use and the connotation .. spirituality. This broad context and the implications that and nuance of this terminology discounts and trivializes arise from such a perspective are usually considered to be the validity of such use. This seemingly minor etymolog- unimportant, if not irrelevant, todruguseissues by scien- ical point reveals an attitude by health professionals _.::" fists, doctors, therapists and drug abuse specialists. How- toward the lay user that is reminiscent of the stance of a '; ever, they are of deep and abiding interest to the lay user. priestly class; an attitude that is prevalent in the When attending this conference. 1had high expecta- psychedelic literature (Anderson 1979; Masters & Hous- tionsthat both the obvious and the hidden issues surround- ton 1966). Thus, at a conference focused on a drug that i,. ',% lng MDMA would be addressed: not only because it was has been described as inviting gentleness and empathy hosted by a prestigious organization and that the present- toward others, there seemed to be little in the way of an c;s were on the leading edge of research, but because this I-Thou attitude on the part of the professionals toward the particular psychoactive substance--as described in the lay user. Rather, the prevailing attitude seemed to be literature--invites honesty, unbiased assessment and Us-Them. Hopefully, as many of the speakers at the ,.4,-. risk-free dialogue. My hopes for this were notably damp- conference expressed, if the mistakes of the 1960's are not i ened when I came across this line, written by one of thc to be repeated with this substance, then this stance needs ,':: t conference hosts, in a book (Seymour 1986: 77) that was to be changed. i distributed to each participant: "In general terms, LSD This thrust was particularly evident in the frequently ?' represents the drug that got loose and poisoned the minds expressed view that when self-administered for self- *P.O. Box 756,Sebastopol, Caliibrnia95472. therapy by lay persons. MDMA usc is improper if m)t ( Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 373 Vol. 18(4) Oct-Dec, 1986 }', I"i '"I LEVERANT MDMARECONSIDERED with a trained profi2ssional. Only one presenter, Joseph experiment. This would be a gross instance of Downing, spoke to the contrary (during a panel discus- Heisenberg's principle wherein the observer's I..1).//,! ha,'nffulsion) andasstatedct)mparedthat hetofeltits that"usc an .an. withadjunctilet topropertherapyset psychotherapypresence inlluences,being conductedif not changes,as a double-blindthe outcome self-administered. People can do self-healing. That's psychological insights that can be statistically _j j andwhat'ssettinggoing andon somenow anywaycommonassense,a resultMDMAof the canDEA'sbe ofproventhe experiment.in the empiricalFurthermore,sense. At besttherethereareis onlyfew i:. :! scheduling:The therapistunder-the-counteris only the personifiuse. ''_cation of the heal- scorroborativeubjective experience.evidenceAsof aeachresult,person'sthe scientificunique [ force directly from time to time, why not? If by ingesting a particular individual, and can only do so in- ' MDMA, a person can put on a therapist's thinking cap for asmuch as a given person resembles other people; i a t_w hours and see him/herself with new vision that is hence the drive to make individuals resemble i ;} presumably empathetic to him/herself, why not'? Interest- scientific models of people. !I ·I ingly,lng :'tspectFreudwithinwaseachin favorperst)n'of layIl'antherapyindividtlalandc;wanted_tntap thisto 3. approachPsychotherapyis not ableis idiographictOdescribe theanduniquedealsnesswithOf "i' (Bettelheim 1983). In fact, he envisioned a profession of have ever occurred at all, except in the mind) and ,: secular ministers of the soul, perhaps akin to Ph.D.'s, thus can neither be replicated nor predicted, while Jt{l! M.F.C.C.'sprotect analysisand fromM.S.W.'s.both physiciansOne can onlyand surmisefrom priestswhy theeventssciencesthat neverare nomotheticrecur in theandsamerequireformverifica-(if tbey jili' i ofthethelbunderhands ofofpsyphysicianschoanalysisand priests.wanted Oneto keepreasonhis childrelevantout sistionloras thewellpredictionas mathematicalof futureandevents.statisticalThe appar-analy- to the drug issue is that Freud often said that all he did was ent purpose of the sciences is the control of nature; reorganize in a different format the profound insights into hence the attempt to understand and control hu- the unconscious of artists, such as Goethe, Nietzsche, man nature through the medical model of be- !:i Dostoevsky. Shakespeare and the Greek tragedians, haviorist psychology and controlling mecha- .i Artists are part of the class of persons (the lay user) who nisrns, such as psychiatric drugs. i!' traditionally have derived much benefit from 4. Most probably, if a statistical survey was under- rl_ psychedelics and whose use of these substances has been taken of the overall results of allopathic t disparagedttnauthorized byandtheillegitimateclergy and. 2medical professionals as wouldmedicine--thebe similarmodelstatisticalthat Bakalarresults asused--therethe current _ PSYCHOTHERAPY AND surveys of psychotherapy, which purportedly Jlj show its failure as a healing modality. Most physi- ,i!iili THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES clans admit, if they are candid, that neither they : befbre MDMA and similar drugs are classified as legal for lng depends on the patient's attitude and the pa- iii! psychotherapeuticOne of the presenters,use, psychotherapyJames Bakalar.needsproposedto be morethat n°rtient'stheirfaithmedicinesin the healerd° theinhealing'conjunctionand thatwithheal-the internal consistency with regard to statistical results and 1985). In medicine, as in psychotherapy, the ther- i verifiable according to the double-blind experiment. This apeutic alliance is the basis of cure (Frank 1973). :i! seems to be two steps backward and none forward on 5. Thc methods of the experimental sciences, while l !!ii scientificseveral counts:in its methodology, more empirical by having healinguseful tools,force areof theinappropriatepatient (Becker&for the studySeldenof MDMA. The studies that need to be carried out because the controlled experiment in human psy- ought to compare the results of psychotherapy cholog 3. unlike animal psychology for creatures i] norms,with andsuchwithoutas enhancedthe use egoof MDMAstrength,alongcapacitycertainto ofwhotim"doImmanas theyspecies,are told,"it isnegatesscientificallythe uniquenesscorrect, ii: ,j I. love,The issuespontaneity,at handabilityis notot forgive,psychotherapywillingnessbut humanyet humanlyconsciousness,wrong. Theincludingqualities therapy.of being Thumanhis is J} others,tofeelandexpressemotions,isolation, nearness to selfabilitytolistentoand nearness to complexity,include unpredictability,autonomy andvariability,multidimensionalitycreativity, '}j}[lJ 2. theThemeaningclient-therapistof life.alliance, irrespective of par- choose.'as well asTothedenyfreedomthese intoorderthink,to toconformbe andtotoa norm up essence being Ill ticular therapeutic stance, mitigates against fabricated is tooffer the of Journal of PsychoactiveDrugs 374 Vol. 18(4) Oct-Dec, 1986 ! LEVERANT MDMA RECONSIDERED _',7_' human on the sacrificial alter of science; a sacri- one time approved medical practice utilized heroin, lice that is no different than that of ritual sacrifice, cocaine, marijuana and opium, but now due to political anywhereat anytime, pressureand notto medicinalorpharmacologicalproper- ! A correlate of this is that as long as ties, these medicaments have been cast out of the J psychotherapy is talk, it is subject to personal pharmacopeia--much to the chagrin of some practi- t 5-- choice, variety, complexity, spontaneity and the tioners (Trebach 1982). As for peer review, in a climate of unfolding of the unknown within each person's fear this safeguard isnot effective. Fearing loss oflicense, P " ' heart. When psychiatry becomes drug specific, it opprobrium from colleagues and the effects on
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