Ecstasy by Julie Holland

Author:Julie Holland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion/Christian Studies
ISBN: 9781594778728
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2010-11-17T05:00:00+00:00

14

CLINICAL EXPERIENCE WITH MDMA-ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY

An Interview with George Greer, M.D.

JH: I think that I would like to start by having you explain what sort of work you do.

GG: I’m a psychiatrist in private practice. I have a small outpatient psychotherapy practice, and I also work half-time in a residential treatment center for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mostly with patients who have experienced sexual or physical abuse in childhood. They also generally have depression and other mood disorders, eating disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and addictions. It’s a very intense patient population. They come to our program from all around the country after being in hospitals for about a month. It’s a residential program designed for after-hospital care. I’m the psychiatrist there, and I evaluate patients and prescribe medications.

JH: Tell me about your involvement with the Heffter Institute.

GG: That’s my third job. I’m the medical director, secretary, and treasurer of the Heffter Research Institute, and I coordinate all the operations and review of research protocols. We have an executive director who does fund-raising and a business manager.

JH: And what does the Heffter Institute do?

GG: We plan, promote, and support research with psychedelic drugs in basic science areas, to learn how the brain works and how the mind works, and in clinical science, to use psychedelics to treat medical and psychiatric conditions. The research is being performed mostly in other countries at this time, but there is also some research in the United States. We’ve been working about eight years now, and the fund-raising is going well. The main program we’re planning is at the University of Zurich with Dr. Franz Vollenweider.

JH: It sounds as if you dedicate some of your time to promoting psychedelic research. I am curious about how that interest began for you.

GG: It began for me in college. It was in my sophomore year, when my roommate said he had learned things from taking mescaline. Then I had some very profound learning experiences that changed my outlook on life more toward spirituality, and I became involved in meditation. In medical school, I learned about the work of Dr. Stanislav Grof, and I went to a six-week program at Esalen Institute in 1975 to learn more about the psychotherapeutic use of LSD. When I finished my psychiatric residency in 1979 in California, I met with Ralph Metzner [consciousness researcher and psychotherapist], who suggested that I conduct clinical sessions with ketamine, which was available to physicians. Then I learned about MDMA, which was being used by psychologists. I began to read the regulations and found that if I synthesized it myself, I could prescribe and administer it to my own patients if I had peer reviews and informed consents.

JH: When did you first hear about MDMA and from whom?

GG: I probably heard about it very vaguely in the 1970s, and in 1980 I heard more clearly from psychologists who were using it in therapy. That’s when I contacted Sasha Shulgin and made a batch in his lab, because he knew how to do it.

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