Perceived attachment history predicts psychedelic experiences : A naturalistic study

• Background and aims: Emerging research indicates that psychedelics may have therapeutic potential by fostering meaningful experiences that act as in fl ection points in people ' s narratives of personal development. However, psychedelic research has largely failed to address pertinent developmental considerations. We investigated whether attachment -related variables were associated with psychedelic experiences and whether psychedelic experiences moderated expected links between perceived attachment history and current adult attachment orientations. Methods: We administered an online survey to an international Jewish sample ( N = 185) with psychedelic experience. The survey included measures about recollection of attachment interactions with parents (perceived attachment history), adult attachment orientations (anxiety, avoidance), and psychedelic phenomenology (mystical experiences, challenging experiences, emotional breakthrough, ego dissolution, sensed presence) associated with respondents ' most memorable psychedelic experiences. Results: Perceptions of an insecure attachment history were positively linked to all measures of psychedelic phenomenology ( r ' s = 0.19 - 32, p ' s mostly < 0.01). In contrast, adult attachment orientations were unrelated to psychedelic phenomenology. Also, psychedelic phenomenology mostly did not moderate the links observed between perceptions of an insecure attachment history and adult attachment orientations. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that perceptions of early attachment experiences may be relevant to psychedelic phenomenology. However, subjective experiences associated with naturalistic psychedelic use do not typically attenuate links between a perceived insecure attachment history and attachment insecurity at present.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Tillämpad psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Applied Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

phenomenology

attachment history

adult attachment orientations

earned security

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)