Uploaded July 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Please support our work and enable us to continue to share these talks for free by donating at paypal.me/breakingconventionuk
Healing the narcissistic wound: Psychedelics and the search for authentic self experience.
We live in an increasingly superficial and fragmented social landscape - where presentation of a successful self image is prioritised over depth and meaning, and the myth of the lone entrepreneur is valued above connection and interdependence with others. This picture is underpinned by the huge existential anxieties of a desacralised society. Many say that we are now living in a narcissistic age.
Psychedelics are incredibly powerful tools, equally capable of inflating or deflating our narcissistic bubbles, depending on the context and intention surrounding their use. Various ancient spiritual traditions and existing psychotherapeutic modalities offer us detailed maps on the developmental roots of narcissistic behaviour, and the human journey from false self to authentic self. What new insights can psychedelics potentially offer on the understanding and healing of narcissistic tendencies? What narcissistic pitfalls await psychedelic practitioners who fail to ground their work in these existing systems of understanding?
In this context we will explore the idea of what an open-hearted dialogue between an American Psychoanalyst, a German Body Psychotherapist, a Brazilian Shaman and a Psychedelic Psychiatrist would look and feel like? What could they offer us in our struggles to understand and heal the underlying wounds that lead to narcissistic behaviour?
The aim is to explore how these various approaches can enrich and inform both our theory and our practice, leading us to a deeper, more compassionate and more integrated understanding of the narcissistic position - and how to work with it when encountered in ourselves and others.
Please support our work and enable us to continue to share these talks for free by donating at paypal.me/breakingconventionuk
Healing the narcissistic wound: Psychedelics and the search for authentic self experience.
We live in an increasingly superficial and fragmented social landscape - where presentation of a successful self image is prioritised over depth and meaning, and the myth of the lone entrepreneur is valued above connection and interdependence with others. This picture is underpinned by the huge existential anxieties of a desacralised society. Many say that we are now living in a narcissistic age.
Psychedelics are incredibly powerful tools, equally capable of inflating or deflating our narcissistic bubbles, depending on the context and intention surrounding their use. Various ancient spiritual traditions and existing psychotherapeutic modalities offer us detailed maps on the developmental roots of narcissistic behaviour, and the human journey from false self to authentic self. What new insights can psychedelics potentially offer on the understanding and healing of narcissistic tendencies? What narcissistic pitfalls await psychedelic practitioners who fail to ground their work in these existing systems of understanding?
In this context we will explore the idea of what an open-hearted dialogue between an American Psychoanalyst, a German Body Psychotherapist, a Brazilian Shaman and a Psychedelic Psychiatrist would look and feel like? What could they offer us in our struggles to understand and heal the underlying wounds that lead to narcissistic behaviour?
The aim is to explore how these various approaches can enrich and inform both our theory and our practice, leading us to a deeper, more compassionate and more integrated understanding of the narcissistic position - and how to work with it when encountered in ourselves and others.
