Tag: psychoactive drugs

Gender and Psychiatry: Pathologized Emotions

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)2 Comments

As Phyllis Chesler warned us in 1974, gender bias has accompanied psychiatric power throughout its history. Years later, in 2005, in the last annotated edition of Women and Madness , the author insisted on the persistence of this bias, which even today, 50 years later, seems to remain unchanged. Authors such as Ussher, Caplan, Margot Pujal and many others were situated in that same space. With their differences and nuances, they all converge on the same point: gender problems and discomforts produce deep suffering. This suffering leaves marks on our bodies and our behavior.

Gender and Psychiatry: Pathologized Emotions

Psychedelic Drugs Are Rushing Towards Approval for Therapy. Here’s What’s Next

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Psychedelic Drugs Are Rushing Towards Approval for Therapy. Here’s What’s Next

Yet one glaring problem remains. Despite promising clinical results, no one knows exactly how psychedelic drugs work in the brain. Examining their actions on brain cells isn’t just an academic curiosity. It could give rise to variants that maintain antidepressant properties without the high. And because hallucinogens substantially alter our perception [management?!] of the world, they could be powerful tools for investigating the neurobiology behind consciousness.

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This year, scientists found another common theme—psychedelics seem to “reset” the brain to a more youthful state, at least in mice. Like humans, mice have an adolescent critical period, during which their brains are highly malleable and can easily rewire neural circuits, but the window closes after adulthood.

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An earlier study showed that MDMA reopens the critical window in adult mice, so that they change their “personality.” Mice raised alone are often introverted and prefer to keep to themselves in adulthood. A dose of MDMA increased their willingness to snuggle with other mice—essentially, they learned to associate socializing with happiness, concluded the study.

It’s not that surprising. MDMA is well-known to promote empathy and bonding. The new study, by the same team, extended their early results to four psychedelics that don’t trigger fuzzy feelings—LSD, ketamine, psilocybin, and ibogaine. Similar to MDMA, adult mice raised alone changed their usual preference for solitude when treated with any of the drugs. Because habits are hard to change in adulthood—for mice and men—the drugs may have reopened the critical period, allowing the brain to more easily rewire neural connections based on new experiences.

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These are just early results. But psychedelic research is gaining a new ally—artificial intelligence. Algorithms that predict protein structure, combined with rational drug design, could generate psychedelics that retain their psychiatric benefits without the high.

H/T: The Most Revolutionary Act

Related:

Psychoanalytic roots of CIA psychoprofiling/pseudoscience

Meaghan thought psychedelic therapy could help her PTSD. Instead it was the start of a nightmare

Why is the American right suddenly so interested in psychedelic drugs

What if a Pill Can Change Your Politics or Religious Beliefs? (archived)

Do Psychedelic Trips Change Your Political Views? (archived)

AOC-Led Delegation Can Push for New Approach to Latin America

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

You might not know it by the relatively scant news coverage, but the U.S. congressional delegation, led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, that visited Brazil, Chile, and Colombia in August marked a big step forward in the development of a new U.S. approach to Latin America and highlighted the important role that the U.S. progressive left has to play in it.

AOC-Led Delegation Can Push for New Approach to Latin America

Related:

AOC urges US to apologize for meddling in Latin America: ‘We’re here to reset relationships’

Asked if the left needs to build a counterweight network, Ocasio-Cortez, whose trip to Latin America was branded “AOC’s socialist sympathy tour” by Rupert Murdoch’s conservative Wall Street Journal newspaper, replied: “I absolutely believe that the battle for democracy must be transnational and it must be global, and it especially must be hemispheric.

Captured Ukrainian Soldiers Speak Out, Forced to Take Drugs To Fight

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Russia today says that it has intercepted a Ukrainian commando team, seeking to conduct sabotage operations in Russia’s Bryansk Region. Redacted correspondent Mike Jones is in Russia and he’s been speaking to members of the Ukrainian army that were captured and are now in Russia.

Captured Ukrainian Soldiers Speak Out, Forced to Take Drugs To Fight via Redacted.

Related:

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How the CIA Illegally Used African Americans for Experimental Drug Research

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

By now, many will be familiar with Project MKULTRA. For decades, the CIA conducted highly unethical experiments on humans in order to perfect brainwashing, mind control and torture techniques.

Perhaps the program’s most notorious aspect was the administration of high doses of psychoactive drugs to targets, particularly LSD. These substances were brought to Langley’s attention in 1948 by Richard Kuhn, one of 1,600 Nazi scientists covertly spirited to the U.S. via Operation Paperclip following World War II. When MKULTRA was formally established five years later, some individuals consulted directly on the project.

How the CIA Illegally Used African Americans for Experimental Drug Research