Who we are
Lab Founder & Director: Nicolas Langlitz, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at The New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College. He was trained as a physician and received doctoral degrees in the history of medicine (Freie Universität Berlin) and medical anthropology (University of California, Berkeley). His second book Neuropsychedelia: The Revival of Hallucinogen Research since the Decade of the Brain (University of California Press, 2012) covers the preclinical phase of the psychedelic renaissance. He also wrote a book about the history of psychoanalysis (Die Zeit der Psychoanalyse: Lacan und das Problem der Sitzungsdauer, Suhrkamp, 2005), which informs his interest in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies as ethical projects. His most recent book is Chimpanzee Culture Wars: Rethinking Human Nature Alongside Japanese, European, and American Cultural Primatologists (Princeton University Press, 2020). At present, Langlitz is working on a philosophical book of micro-essays on the moral psychopharmacology of psychedelics. Ethnographically, he has begun to study how the development of novel psychedelic compounds and novel psychotherapeutic practices set the stage for the introduction of psychedelics into Western medicine. For more information, see www.nicolaslanglitz.de.
Recent articles:
Langlitz, N. (2016). Is there a place for psychedelics in philosophy? Common Knowledge,22(3), 373–384. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-3622224
Langlitz, N. (2019). Psychedelic science as cosmic play, psychedelic humanities as perennial polemics? Or why we are still fighting over Max Weber’s Science as a Vocation. Journal of Classical Sociology, 19(3), 275–289. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795X19851405
Langlitz, N. (2020a, July 21). Rightist Psychedelia. Society for Cultural Anthropology. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/rightist-psychedelia
Langlitz, N. (2020b, August 3). Should Psychedelic Humanities promote Psychedelic Humanism?https://chacruna.net/should-psychedelic-humanities-promote-psychedelic-humanism/
Lab Co-founder & Manager: Ksenia Cassidy (she, they) is a non-binary mental health academic and practitioner with a background in social justice, community organizing, journalism, and filmmaking. Their research interests revolve around psychedelics, gender, trauma, attachment, addiction, and harm reduction. Ksenia’s training and clinical background are in substance abuse counseling. Currently, Ksenia is completing a Master’s degree in Psychology with Concentration in Substance Abuse Counseling at The New School for Social Research. Together with Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration (PHRI) originators Ingmar Gorman and Elizabeth Nielson Ksenia, Aja Molinar and Jonathan Sabbagh co-authored Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration: A Transtheoretical model for clinical practice. Ksenia’s ongoing research looks into correlations between childhood trauma, ayahuasca use, and post-traumatic growth.
Lab members:
Minsu Yoo is a Master’s-level student at the Anthropology Department of the New School for Social Research. Her research interests center upon the innovation paradigm within psychopharmaceutical industries and institutional geographies of healthcare practices. Currently, Minsu is finishing her book on a qualitative engagement with psychotherapeutics in South Korea’s post-capitalist context, which is forthcoming in 2023. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Sociology from Seoul National University and a Bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) in English Literature from Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul.
Sofia Sakopoulos received her B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience from Northeastern University and is completing an M.A. in Psychology with a concentration in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counseling at The New School for Social Research. Ms. Sakopoulos’ interests include cognitive optimization and the integration of cutting-edge pharmacological psychedelic compounds and psychological interventions for an effective understanding of treatment interventions in psychopathologies. Her ongoing research in the Psychedelics Humanities Laboratory is the industrialization of psychedelics through social science collaboration with psychological, anthropological, and economic perspectives, along with primary source interviews with global thought leaders in the space.
Mitsu Puri (she/her) is a research scholar and community organizer interested in the clinical, philosophical, sociocultural, political and historical dimensions of alternative states of consciousness and contemplative practices. Especially those that emanate from her ancestral lands. She completed her masters in clinical psychology from Columbia University in 2022, where her research focus was on spiritual awareness pedagogy, and the therapeutic potential of spirit-mind-body interventions on wellbeing. She has a background in substance use treatment and harm reduction, and currently volunteers as a psychedelic peer supporter at Fireside Project. She is also the project manager of the Asian Psychedelic Collective, a space of education, advocacy and collective healing and liberation for Asians working with psychedelics. Mitsu was born in India and raised in Indonesia and Malaysia before she immigrated to the United States.
Sapna Desai comes from a STEM background specializing in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance. Sapna transitioned from a career in financial/IT audit to the field of Psychology. Sapna’s main interests include psychedelics, spirituality, and consciousness.