The modern field of neuropsychology which studies the brains networking in relation to the mental health of an individual is becoming a broader group of many subfields as technology aids in the ever increasing body of knowledge. The advancement in technology has not only lead to sensitive equipment which can look closely and in many different ways at the brain, but has also reached out into the very minds of individuals suffering. Pharmaceutical drugs are designed to target certain hormonal and chemical reactions in the mind, relieving the majority of the clinical mental illnesses. Such advancements have led to the development of the neuropsychology subgroup: psychopharmacology, which was developed by the Arts and Science Career Programs (ASCP) in the 1980’s and has undergone many revisions since it began (Glick & Zisook, 2005).
In 1998 the California School of Professional Psychology and the Alliant International University put together the first degree for clinical psychopharmacology, which is a post doctoral degree (Rosack, 2004). To obtain the academic peak in the field of psychopharmacology, a person would have to trudge through their Bachelors degree, climb the academic post graduate ladder to their Masters degree which requires a well thought thesis paper, which is more like a short book, only to find they still have years of work which only becomes more focused and scrupulously designed to hone the skills which will study “the action of drugs on psychological functions and mental states,” according to the Dorland's Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers which defines psychopharmacology (Saunders, 2007, par. 1).
After four years of undergraduate study in medicine, and a doctoral-level of understanding in the field of psychology, one would be prepared to enter the mandatory 300 hour credited class schedule of the study and application of psychopharmacology (Rosack, 2004). But while schooling and theoretical or past cases are studied, the degree in psychopharmacology also requires real world experience. At least 100 patients should pass under the observation and treatment of the psychologist in the hospital and in outpatient therapy (Rosack, 2004). With all the schooling needed to work in this field, it is no wonder that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition, eight percent of people working outside of the field of psychology are self-employed, which pales in comparison with the thirty four percent of psychologists who work for themselves.
After all this schooling, it would perhaps be frustrating to face the limitations imposed by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). It may be frustrating, for example, for teachers of eighth grade science to face angry parents opposed at the idea of evolution and demanding education of their children to include creationism—but even in this circumstance, a private school would be recommended as an alternative to the public school curriculum. Similarly, one could imagine the frustration level of someone practicing psychopharmacology when they face restrictions in medicines which could benefit the mental health of their patients. Crusading ethical agendas targeting this new field of research and treatments resemble the crusades in the dark ages in that they both ended by causing more harm than salvation. It is as if some fear the resurrection of drugs on the schedule one list, “designated as having no medical use with possession totally banned,” in the case of psilocybin and LSD which became illegal in 1964 (Metzner, 2004, p.34). With the ebb and flow of political and moral standards in the United States, July of 2006 opened a door to reexamine the potential psychedelic properties of psilocybin, keeping in mind that the word psychedelic has changed through the course of its utterance among the American populous. The dictionary illustrates the mixed message of the word psychedelic, resembling “Orwellian double talk,” where it simultaneously has one definition that cancels out the other. According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the word psychedelic is defined: “Of, characterized by, or generating hallucinations, distortions of perception, altered states of awareness, and occasionally states resembling psychosis.”(2000 par. 1). It is difficult to understand how this definition would come from the Greek word psyche which when combined with the Indo-European word d
los, which literally means “to make visible” in the same dictionar.
los, which literally means “to make visible” in the same dictionar. On the frontlines of the battle ground ripping his way through the blood red tape and walls of paper work around the vault of the psychedelic experience, Dr. Griffith, head of the psilocybin research team at John Hopkins Medicine, was able to go forth with his research that proved to be of interest in the field of psychopharmacology (Vohr, 2006). He adhered to strict guidelines in his double blind study where 30 subjects underwent a drug experience, on either psilocybin, or Ritalin, an amphetamine used as a placebo. It is this test which best illustrates how someone in the field of psychopharmacology which crosses from neuropsychology to clinical psychology, which both fall under the category of research psychology in this case. The 30 people in the test came two times, not knowing which drug they were going to receive on that day, and the days were separated by one month. Then on the third test, which was a month later than the second, the patients were told they were being given a dose of psilocybin. Dr. Griffith sought to understand the key ingredient to the “magic mushroom” and “compare with neural activity in people who experience drug free spiritual epiphanies,” according to Science News (2006 par. 5). Griffith found that unlike other drugs, psilocybin has no known addictive or toxic qualities and meets the criteria for an entheogen, or a substance which creates a mystical experience as it “mimics the effects of serotonin in brain receptors” (Vohr, 2006 par.3).
While psychologists in this field conduct research, looking for the fingerprint of God in the brain, it is not money which inspires their pursuits. One would think that after 10 years of school and debts compiled, an individual would be ushered into a comfortable six figure income, yet only twelve years ago in 1995, a study conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that the average income for people in research positions with a doctoral-level degree in psychology was a mere $57,000 per year (Wicherski, Woerheide & Kohout, 1995). Fortunately, since the dawn of psychedelic investigation within the scientific community which began in 1959 in the Harvard Psilocybin Research Project, outside parties have helped supply the necessary drugs. Fifty years ago, it would have been easier to acquire substances which had not been doomed to the dreaded FDA Schedule 1 list. A Harvard Professor who reached celebrity status among certain counter culture groups during his investigation on psilocybin and later LSD supplied by the Swiss Pharmaceutical Sandoz company (Metzner, 2004). Professor Timothy Leary, did not exactly stray from the scientific method, but after undergoing the psychedelic experience himself; he applied teachings from the Tibetan Book Of The Dead to the entheogenic experience at the request of Aldous Huxley who assisted him during the Havard Psilocybin Research Project (Metzner, 2004). Perhaps it was his “existential-transactional” approach which sought to take the psychedelic experience into nature and out of the sterile indoor research laboratory that lead to the banishing of the substances before they could be properly studied (Metzner, 2004 p. 30).
Today it is to the dismay of many conservatives who would like to see the substances on the FDA Schedule 1 list buried for good, The Doors of Perception are open once again. Perhaps it was the destiny of the psychedelic experience have been made visible and accessible, and it is the duty of those in the field of psychopharmacology to find ways to light up the frontal lobes in the psychopath’s mind so that he/she may understand societal values such as compassion and not have to fake emotional reactions any longer.
After researching the field of psychopharmacology and the ten year academic sentence which it is attached to, I do not think I would be interested in following such a rigorous route through life. Although I am interested in the psychedelic research I read in my leisure time, it is the psychedelic experience in which I am most interested. While school is interesting and I enjoy learning, I couldn’t imagine trying to get a doctoral degree, and beyond that is like trying to imagine something in the fifth dimension. I found that although 300 hours are required for a degree in psychopharmacology, schools in New Mexico where I am thinking of attending require 450 hours (Rosack, 2004). I would like to study under Dr. Rick Strassman who holds degrees from Stanford University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and, “also began the first new U.S.-government-approved-and-funded clinical research with psychedelic drugs in over 20 years,” (Strassman, 2001 p. 362). He conducted research on dimethyltriptamine (DMT) which he suspects carries the human soul from one incarnation to the next, explained in his book DMT the Spirit Molecule. After reading about his struggles with the FDA and DEA and how he originally wished to test MDMA on people terminally ill with cancer, I was certain that the work in the field of psychopharmacology could be described as the work of a psychedelic warrior (Strassman, 2001).
References
Metzner, R. (2004). Sacred Mushroom Of Visions Teonanacatl.Rochester: Four Trees Press.
Strassman, R. (2001). DMT The Spirit Molecule. Rochester: Park Street Press.
The Center for Psychology Workforce Analysis and Research. (2008). 1997 Salaries in Psychology - Section 14. Masters - Level Respondents. Retrieved March 6, 2008, from http://research.apa.org/97salary/masters.html
Glick, I. & Zisook, S. (2005, June). The Challenge of Teaching Psychopharmacology in the New Millennium: The Role of Curricula. Retrieved March 6, 2008 from http://ap.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/29/2/134
Rosack, J. (2004, August 6). Psychologist Training Options Expand in Quest to Prescribe. Psychiatric News. Retrieved March 6, 2008, from http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/39/15/1
Dorland’s Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers (2007). psychopharmacology /psy·cho·phar·ma·col·o·gy/ (-fahr?mah-kol´-ah-je). Retrieved March 6, 2008, from
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/psychopharmacology
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor (2007). Occupational Outlook Handbook. Retrieved March 2, 2008, from http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos056.htm
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000). psy·che·del·ic. Retrieved March 2, 2008, from http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html
Vohr, E. (2006, July 11). Hopkins Scientists Show Hallucinogen In Mushrooms Creates Universal “Mystical” Experience. Science News. Retrieved February 29, 2008, from http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html Chemical Enlightenment
