Psychedelics and the Narrative Self

Psychedelics have a notable impact on transitions and shifts in identity – a robust body of work expressed curiosity about their effect on our sense of self. Why so? Humans have intentionally pursued life-changing experiences throughout history to shape their beliefs and understanding of the world. The ceremonies, spirituality, rituals, and religious practices around these substances greatly impacted our current society.

Many have recognized the potential of these experiences not only to challenge their familiar selves but also for cultural transformation. What makes changes in our self-identity so critical for our well-being? What is the role of these radical transformative experiences in our relationship with ourselves?

“There, the value of psychedelics appears [when] someone who is constantly spiraling in between negative ways of perceiving self, psychedelics help create a different model.”

— Aysu Naz Atalay, MSc

The Concept of the Narrative Self

Identity is an odd concept. It’s a configuration and a remarkable process building over the years on self-defining beliefs, desires, memories, stories, and embodied experiences. There are things we constantly remind ourselves of, things we inherently question – who I am and what I have been through. The narrative self or narrative identity is not inherently bad; it helps us understand our internal and external interactions and is a central sense-making process.

Yet, there is another side to the story. Suppose an individual constantly engages with socially constructed, fragmented, or confused narratives. In that case, the whole process creates a negative self-perception and ruminative patterns, which can feed disconnection, alienation, and certain mental limitations [2]. We persistently choose one story over another while our mind travels in the past. Thus, internalized false beliefs drastically disrupt our optimal interaction with the self and the world around us.

What is Embodied Cognition?

A big part of our narrative identity comes from embodied experiences. Embodied cognition theory posits the idea that our body’s interaction with the environment is crucial for shaping and understanding our experiences [3]. 

Psychedelics, being sensory-inducing, often influence how individuals experience the self through embodied cognition processes [4]. Further, psychedelics are also explored on their potential for changes in bodily self since many psychiatric disorders also cause changes in bodily self-awareness and disembodiment [5].

Embodied Narrative

The body plays a big part in shaping self-narration – embodiment is crucial for building a personal identity. As the theory proposes, our bodily experiences and interactions with the external environment embed our cognitive processes. This connection means that our thoughts, emotions, and perceptions are not only mental experiences but also closely tied to our sensations and bodily self. Recent theoretical research indicates the development of the body as a multifaceted process in which “pre-reflective” body experience matures into the narrative self, which consists of knowledge, beliefs, and self-image [6]. Any abnormality in the self-referential mechanism interrupts the continuous flow of our pre-reflective self and feeds the narrative self, which might result in mental or bodily disorders [7].

How Do Psychedelics Interfere with Our Narrative Identity?

The distinct mechanism of psychedelics is their ability to lead to an altered state of consciousness – which is a form of consciousness that differs from the ordinary waking state. This state may allow us to reach deeper layers of our thoughts, emotions, and memories. Psychedelics can disrupt the constructed self-model and induce a more flexible one with different structures [8].

Alterations in our consciousness often link to changes in our cognitive states and autobiographical self; in other words, they change how we perceive our past and stories. They also alter our internal models through the experience of ego dissolution and induce different structures of self [9]. The outcome might be the disruption of self-referential thinking and cognitive restructuring of the narrative self, for instance, abandoning old beliefs and rigid thinking patterns, visible changes in the familiar self, and certain traits (e.g., emotion processing, mental flexibility).

Subjective Experience with Psychedelics

The subjective experience with psychedelics is a multisensorial interaction – including the embodiment of emotions, physical sensations, and altered bodily self-awareness. Indeed, many reports of psychedelic states indicate the embodiment of emotions, physical sensations, and altered bodily self-awareness [10]. Despite the classic pharmacological treatment, the mechanism of psychedelics is not merely neurological changes in the brain but also the transformational experiences they provide.

Psychedelics Re-constructing Our Maladaptive Self-Beliefs

It is often challenging for a person with a mental disorder to change their way of thinking, behaving, or being – unquestionably, psychiatric disorders are diverse and multilayered. Even when the person engages with logical understanding, identifying with a positive emotion often becomes problematic due to negative rumination patterns.

In fact, people who have depression often show symptoms of rigid thinking and maladaptive self-perception. However, a flexible self-model is inevitable when adapting to changes and what life continually offers. Is it always possible to identify with a different self? What does it mean to deconstruct and reconstruct our sense of self?

If we accept that the self is a dynamic and ever-changing concept, the limitations of maladaptive thinking become apparent. In times when there is a solid, engaged negative belief in our minds, its potentiality to transform is quite challenging for us. There, the value of psychedelics appears.

For someone who is constantly spiraling in between negative ways of perceiving self, psychedelics help create a different model [11]. They do not necessarily interact with this reconstruction process but merely allow you to realize the patterns and be more selective in thought-making processes. It’s not about losing the narrative but choosing it. 

Is a More Flexible Self-Model Possible?

Psychedelic therapy is an emerging field – how psychedelics work in our brains and their potential effects are still a subject of discussion. So far, researchers mainly study psychedelics’ action at the neural level, making the research quite “mind” oriented. Exploring subjective reports and self-referential changes during these experiences might help us to understand the nature of these experiences better.

The unique mechanism of psychedelics may be their activity on this referential activity, such as the alteration of defective structures of self. The remaining question is: can psychedelics re-engineer our self-mechanisms and change how we interpret our worldly experiences?

References

1. Gallagher, S. (2000, January 1). Philosophical Conceptions of the Self: Implications for Cognitive Science. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(1), 14-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1364-6613(99)01417-5
2. Nejad, A. B., Fossati, P., & Lemogne, C. (2013b, October 10). Self-Referential Processing, Rumination, and Cortical Midline Structures in Major Depression. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 666. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00666
3. Rhee, Y. E. (2014). Embodied Cognition, Narrative, and the Self. International Journal of Body, Nature, and Culture, 1(1), 31-48. https://iqjol.com/superboard/data/product2/1935374787_1nsGiC8a_7d8c42d5cd69e000af380911e8a354df4d391d67.pdf
4. Harduf, A., Panishev, G., Harel, E. V., Stern, Y., & Salomon, R. (2023, December 1). The Bodily Self from Psychosis to Psychedelics. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 21209. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-47600-z
5. Ho, J. T., Preller, K. H., & Lenggenhager, B. (2020). Neuropharmacological Modulation of the Aberrant Bodily Self Through Psychedelics. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 108, 526-541. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.12.006
6. Riva, G. (2018, September 4). The Neuroscience of Body Memory: From the Self Through the Space to the Others. Cortex, 104, 241–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.07.013
7.  Millière, R., Carhart-Harris, R. L., Roseman, L., Trautwein, F. M., & Berkovich-Ohana, A. (2018, September 4). Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1475. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01475
8. Ciaunica, A., & Safron, A. (2022, July 12). Disintegrating and Reintegrating the Self–(in) Flexible Self-Models in Depersonalization and Psychedelic Experiences. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/mah78
9. Letheby, C., & Gerrans, P. (2017a, June 30). Self Unbound: Ego Dissolution in Psychedelic Experience. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2017(1) 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/nix016
10. Belser, A. B., Agin-Liebes, G., Swift, T. C., Terrana, S., Devenot, N., Friedman, H. L., Guss, J., Bossis, A., & Ross, S. (2017, April 28). Patient Experiences of Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy: An Interpretative Phenomenological  Analysis. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 57(4), 354–388. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167817706884
11. Gerrans, P.  & Letheby, C. (2017, August 8). Modal Hallucinations. Aeon https://aeon.co/essays/psychedelics-work-by-violating-our-models-of-self-and-the-world