CJ Healy | New School for Social Research

Papers by CJ Healy

Chronic Stress, 2021

Background: Child maltreatment negatively affects the formation of internal schemata of self and ... more Background: Child maltreatment negatively affects the formation of internal schemata of self and other during development, leading to negative adaptations in self-concept and social cognition. Clinical reports suggest the efficacy of psychedelics in treating the psychopathological sequelae of child maltreatment. Altering maladaptive schemata of self and other implicated in negative self-concept and impaired social cognition may be a central mechanism for reducing posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Aims: This study aims to assess whether psychedelic use moderates the relationships between child maltreatment and self-concept, social cognition, and posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Method: An online survey was completed by 166 participants and included measures of maltreatment exposure and severity, history of intentional therapeutic psychedelic use, posttraumatic stress symptoms, internalized shame, and facial emotion recognition.

Results: Child maltreatment significantly correlated with posttraumatic stress symptoms (r = 26 and r = 20, p < .01) and internalized shame (r = 18, p < .05). Of all maltreatment subtypes, emotional abuse and neglect most strongly correlated with complex trauma symptoms (r = 32, p < .001) and internalized shame (r = 31, p < .001). Participants with a history of intentional therapeutic psychedelic use reported significantly lower complex trauma symptoms (d = 0.33, p < .05) and internalized shame (d = 0.35, p < .05) despite similar histories of maltreatment. Differences in complex trauma symptoms (d = 0.66, p < .01) and internalized shame (d = 0.80, p < .001) were largest for participants with a history of more than 5 occasions of intentional therapeutic psychedelic use. A history of more than 5 occasions of intentional therapeutic psychedelic use significantly moderated the relationship between emotional abuse and neglect and complex trauma symptoms (p < .01). No associations were found between maltreatment or psychedelic use and facial emotion recognition.

Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that using psychedelic drugs with therapeutic intent is associated with lower levels of complex trauma symptoms and internalized shame in individuals with histories of child maltreatment. Psychedelic use may have therapeutic benefit in treating the posttraumatic sequelae of child maltreatment.

Academia Letters, 2021

The default mode network (DMN) is a functional network of brain hubs that is active during a rest... more The default mode network (DMN) is a functional network of brain hubs that is active during a resting state (for a review, see Raichle, 2015). It was discovered and identified by chance: brain researchers noticed that when participants in neuroimaging studies began to perform goal-directed and non-self-referential tasks after being in a resting state, they saw consistent, uniform patterns of deactivation across a network of brain regions (Mak et al., 2016). These brain regions comprise discrete, bilateral, and symmetrical cortical areas in the medial and lateral parietal cortex, the medial prefrontal cortex, and the medial and lateral temporal cortex (Raichle, 2015). Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the DMN has been implicated in a variety of psychiatric disorders, and changes in DMN RSFC have been associated with positive treatment outcomes (Mak et al., 2016; Raichle, 2015). This paper begins with a brief review of DMN anatomy and functioning in healthy adults. It then continues to review abnormalities in DMN RSFC found in major depressive disorder (MDD) and changes in DMN RSFC following administration of classic psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, that have been shown to predict positive outcomes in both healthy and depressed participants. DMN Healthy Functioning Raichle (2015) presents a comprehensive review of the components and normal functioning of the default mode network. The DMN represents organization within the brain's intrinsic or ongoing activity (Raichle, 2015). It was discovered not by showing activation in

Psychopharmacology, 2021

Rationale: Memory plays a central role in the psychedelic experience. The spontaneous recall and ... more Rationale: Memory plays a central role in the psychedelic experience. The spontaneous recall and immersive reliving of autobiographical memories has frequently been noted by researchers and clinicians as a salient phenomenon in the profile of subjective effects of classic psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin, LSD, and ayahuasca. The ability for psychedelics to provoke vivid memories has been considered important to their clinical efficacy.

Objective: This review aims to examine and aggregate the findings from experimental, observational, and qualitative studies on the acute modulation of memory by classic psychedelics in humans.

Method: A literature search was conducted using PubMed and PsycInfo as well as manual review of references from eligible studies. Publications reporting quantitative and/or qualitative findings were included; animal studies and case reports were excluded.

Results: Classic psychedelics produce dose-dependently increasing impairments in memory task performance, such that low doses produce no impairment and higher doses produce increasing levels of impairment. This pattern has been observed in tasks assessing spatial and verbal working memory, semantic memory, and non-autobiographical episodic memory. Such impairments may be less pronounced among experienced psychedelic users. Classic psychedelics also increase the vividness of autobiographical memories and frequently stimulate the recall and/or re-experiencing of autobiographical memories, often memories that are affectively intense (positively or negatively valenced) and that had been avoided and/or forgotten prior to the experience.

Conclusions: Classic psychedelics dose-dependently impair memory task performance but may enhance autobiographical memory. These findings are relevant to the understanding of psychological mechanisms of action of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

Keywords: Autobiographical memory,; Episodic memory,; Memory,; Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy; Psychedelics,; Recovered memory; Semantic memory,; Working memory,.

Drafts by CJ Healy

The ethical demands of Blackness have weighed on the West for a half millennium. The ontological ... more The ethical demands of Blackness have weighed on the West for a half millennium. The ontological violence of the Middle Passage continues to fundamentally structure modernity and cohere what it means to be a Human in the world. Following recent interventions at the cutting edge of Black Studies, my project examines Blackness not as group phenotype, social construct, or cultural heritage, but as a structural relationship to violence. This structural violence variously positions some sentient beings as Human subjects and others as non-Human objects, or Slaves. If it is this violence that generates and reproduces the world, then Black revolution (which is to say, revolution) exceeds the paradigms of other revolutionary programs, such as communism or decolonization, which seek to transform and improve the world; instead, Black revolution aims at the destruction of the world and its anti-Black foundations. My thesis finally argues that for a White person to take up this ethical imperative to destroy the world and, crucially, to act on this imperative, will necessarily result in their de-Whitening – they will lose their Human coordinates and become objects, joining the dance of death. I approach this project through three chapters: on Whiteness, on Blackness, and on (Black) revolution.