ReviewFrontiers in neuroscience2023
The ego in psychedelic drug action - ego defenses, ego boundaries, and the therapeutic role of regression.
Review in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Traumatic Psychedelic Experiences.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2026Review
- Case Report: Amplified psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis, OCD and MDMA in a clinical case study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Mechanisms of psilocybin on the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Review
- Psychedelic-Associated Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2026Review
- Further education in psychedelic-assisted therapy - experiences from Switzerland.BMC medical education · 2025Review
- Fearful symmetry in altered states: a bi-logic account of psychedelic action.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Effects of Psychedelics in Older Adults: A Prospective Cohort Study.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2024Observational
- The potential of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine in the treatment of alcohol use disorder: A first look at therapeutic mechanisms of action.Addiction biology · 2024Review
- Cross-validation of the ego dissolution scale: implications for studying psychedelics.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The ego is one of the most central psychological constructs in psychedelic research and a key factor in psychotherapy, including psychedelic-assisted forms of psychotherapy. Despite its centrality, the ego-construct remains ambiguous in the psychedelic literature. Therefore, we here review the theoretical background of the ego-construct with focus on its psychodynamic conceptualization. We discuss major functions of the ego including ego boundaries, defenses, and synthesis, and evaluate the role of the ego in psychedelic drug action. According to the psycholytic paradigm, psychedelics are capable of inducing regressed states of the ego that are less protected by the ego's usual defensive apparatus. In such states, core early life conflicts may emerge that have led to maladaptive ego patterns. We use the psychodynamic term
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.