Mental health problems are an important social issue that sociologists and social workers have to deal with regularly. There is an urgent need for research on mental health issues for the mitigation of the social problems they present. However, ethical and practical issues limit and complicate research on mental health issues. The instant research paper takes a functionalist perspective in investigating the suitability of psychedelic research in psychology in general and particularly mental health issues. Based on the research and analysis undertaken, psychedelics are both effective and suitable as an avenue for psychology and mental health research.
Introduction
According to functionalism, emotion is the reaction to a bodily experience itself, as opposed to the cause of the bodily experience. For example, there is congruency in the laugher that results from either extreme happiness or being tickled. The sound will be similar, the body will be similarly exhausted and the individual laughing will get a sense of exhilaration. Psychedelics take a similar approach by creating paranormal experiences through the introduction of chemicals in the system. The chemicals, known as psychedelics influence the mind and cause the user to undergo experiences that seem to be out of this world (Rucker, 2015). However, the individual will normally not be undergoing any experience at all and may even be lying down in a relatively normal room. Psychedelic research is the kind of research that studies the human physical and psychological reactions during a psychedelic experience (Halberstadt, Vollenweider & Vollenweider, 2018). From a functionalist perspective, psychedelic research can be effective because the reactions tested by the researchers stem from the bodily reactions but not from the chemicals used to create the experiences.
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Congruency between Psychedelics and Psychosis
Among the reasons psychedelic research may be successful is the congruency between psychedelic experiences and psychosis. It is important to note that this comparison may sound insensitive due to the dire nature of psychosis and the vagaries it visits upon patients. However, the dire nature of psychosis is also grounds for the necessity of research on how to assist patients. By definition, psychosis happens when loses touch with reality due to the severity of a mental disorder (Rucker, 2015). The patient may perceive ordinary things as paranormal to imagine inexistent things. A similar experience happens to individuals when they take psychedelics. The chemicals bend reality and give the uses paranormal experiences. The experiences may relate to normal events or be warped experiences that push the limits human imagination (Rucker, 2015; Halberstadt, Vollenweider & Vollenweider, 2018). Based on the analysis above, psychosis and psychedelics have enough congruencies to enable the use of one in researching the other.
Research-based differences between Psychosis and Psychedelics
From the perspective of sociological and psychological research, two distinct differences between psychosis and psychedelics can aid the process of research. The first issue is the ethical limitations that constantly dog psychological research (Forrester & Forrester, 2018). Mental health issues have always been a sensitive subject commonly associated with abuse, discrimination, and stigmatization. Many well-meaning researchers on mental health issues have come under condemnation form a sociological perspective due to the assumed abuse of the mentally ill. The second ethical issue relates to the ethical and legal issue of informed consent (Forrester & Forrester, 2018). The ability of a psychotic patient to give informed consent is highly compromised. By definition, informed consent means at the time of giving consent the patient certifiably understood the conditions regarding the consent so given. The very definition of psychosis makes it difficult for a patient to give the necessary consent for treatment, let alone for research purposes.
However, unlike in psychosis, psychedelics are normally not mental health patients but healthy adventurous individuals. They are capable of giving full consent for research purposes hence eliminating the barrier of informed consent. On the other hand, most psychedelics users are not patients but rather willing participants (Halberstadt, Vollenweider & Vollenweider, 2018). This status mitigates the propensity of accusations of abuse, discrimination or stigmatization of mental health patients. It also reduces propensity for accusations that researchers have exacerbated mental health problems. Conversely, psychosis has the research-based challenge of inability to control. Most psychotic patients are either not in touch with reality or under heavy sedatives to control the psychosis (Forrester & Forrester, 2018). Either of the two states that pose major challenges to researchers. However, experts can control the administration of psychedelics in order to create an element of control. Based on the above, psychedelics can enable the mitigation of the two major challenges that face researchers in mental health issues.
The Functionalism Perspective
An important issue on the possibility of using psychedelics to undertake research in social issues such as mental health problems is propensity for effectiveness, which is where the functionalism perspective comes in. For a research process based on psychedelics to make sense, there should be a hypothesis that psychedelic research can play a role in the advancement of mental health issues. For example, according to Zarley (2019), the world-class Johns Hopkins University recently spent close to 20 million dollars to establish a psychedelics unit. The unit will inter alia investigate the therapeutic effects of psychedelics. Conversely, according to Rucker et al., (2016), there has been psychedelic research associated with the management of psychosis. One has to wonder if a synthetically instituted form of pseudo-psychosis can enable research or the real psychosis or even have therapeutic effects. According to The Macat Team. (2017), the James-Lange theory of emotion provides that emotion is a reaction to bodily experience as opposed to chemicals that trigger that experience. This theory is an important component of functionalism and it gives credence to the hypothesis that psychedelics should be effective in research for actual mental health issues.
Conclusion
It is evident from the totality of the above that form a functionalist perspective, psychedelics research can be useful in finding ways to mitigate the problem of mental health issues. Available research as analyzed above provides a congruency in some mental health issues, such as psychosis and the effects of psychedelics. Further, the nature of psychedelics and their users mitigates the normal ethical and practical challenges associated with psychological researchers. Finally, from a functionalist perspective, psychedelic research can be effective as a tool for researching psychological phenomena. Based on the above, psychedelics provide an important avenue for psychological research.
References
Forrester, M. A., & Sullivan, C. (Eds.). (2018). Doing qualitative research in psychology: A practical guide . Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications Limited.
Halberstadt, A. L., Vollenweider, F. X., & Nichols, D. E. (Eds.). (2018). Behavioral Neurobiology of Psychedelic Drugs (Vol. 36). Springer.
Marks, S. (2015). From experimental psychosis to resolving traumatic pasts: psychedelic research in communist Czechoslovakia, 1954-1974. Cahiers du monde Russe , 56 (1), 53-76.
Rucker, J. J., Jelen, L. A., Flynn, S., Frowde, K. D., & Young, A. H. (2016). Psychedelics in the treatment of unipolar mood disorders: a systematic review. Journal of Psychopharmacology , 30 (12), 1220-1229.
The Macat Team. (2017). The Principles of Psychology . Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.
Zarley, B. D. (2019, October 15). Johns Hopkins' Psychedelic Research Center Shows Promise. Retrieved from https://www.freethink.com/articles/studying-psychedelic-research-johns-hopkins .
