June 28 2017

Video-Flashback #10 – Benedikt Sarreiter “From Therapy to Mind Control to Fun to Self-Optimization”

In his talk about “Substance Use in the 20th and 21st Century” writer Benedikt Sarreiter pleads us to take a step further: “The grey, spongy organ that is our brain can provide much more than it does today and psychedelics could help to dig it out and to discover it.”

The use of psychedelics and related substances changed over the last 70 years almost every decade. In the beginning there was psychotherapy. The treatment with LSD became hip in the late 1950ies and early 60ies to heal the tormented souls of Hollywood celebrities or ordinary German citizens. At the same time, the military complex discovered all kinds of drugs und tried to use them for a modern approach to interrogation techniques. Then the hippies came, then a backlash, before, ten to fifteen years ago, the renaissance of psychedelics began and lead to several different ways of substance use, ranging from all kinds of therapy to leisure time fun and to self-optimization. This talk will give a short overview of the past, present and future of modern substance use.

Under the patronage of

Deutsche UNESCO Kommission

Supported by

Thüringen

Organized by

Media and event partners

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