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Ayahuasca as an Addiction Treatment in Catalonia: Cognitive and Cultural Perspectives


Web link: doi.org/10.1007/9...

Pages: 153 - 170

Abstract

Ayahuasca arrived in Spain at the end of the 1980s through different alternative therapy centers, spiritual groups, and Brazilian churches. Since then, Spanish people have been connecting through informal psychospiritual networks, interested in using ayahuasca to cope with various psychological and medical problems. One of these is addiction. This chapter is the summary of research conducted in Catalonia and surrounding areas in Spain, focused on addicts recovered through the ritualistic use of ayahuasca. First, I will make a brief presentation of the studies related to ayahuasca and its potential therapeutic effect, including addiction treatment. Next, a ritual healing model that combines cultural and cognitive levels will be proposed, using insights from medical anthropology, cognitive science of religion, neuropsychology, and other interdisciplinary fields. The model emphasizes how the ritual can produce different “memories of the experience,” triggering new biographical narratives and diverse psychological effects. After this, I will make a description of the research methods: a qualitative study of 12 cases and a biographical analysis of their subjective narratives. The study is not an assessment of the efficacy of the treatment but a qualitative analysis that tries to uncover the cognitive and cultural mechanisms that allow ritual healing to achieve its therapeutic goals. Explaining those cases with both cognitive and cultural approaches will help us to see ritual healing in all its complexity, producing a variety of medical and psychological outcomes.