The Ketamine Papers: Science, Therapy, and Transformation

by Phil Wolfson

The Ketamine Papers opens the door to a broad understanding of this medicine’s growing use in psychiatry and its decades of history providing transformative personal experiences.

This comprehensive volume is the ideal introduction for patients and clinicians alike, and for anyone interested in the therapeutic and transformative healing power of this revolutionary medicine.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Science, Drugs, Health, Medicine, Neuroscience

448 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes the format of: personal experiences and introduction to ketamine, its history, previous studies, and current and speculative use. The editors include a representative variety of viewpoints (and lots and lots of data), as well as plenty of jumping off points for further reading. I had no idea how disorganized and nonstandardized the approach to treatment has been. It's worrying, but not especially given that this is a fairly emergent field. I mean, there's even commentary on someone's Bluelight post. But my final conclusion is this: I walked away much more educated on what's actually happening with experimental ketamine use, it made me think, and some of the personal experiences even made me laugh. It was worth the read.

[David Mackey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ketamine is known to the public primarily as a street drug. In medical circles it is primarily known for its use as an anesthetic. In more recent years it has been used with significant success to treat depression, particularly depression where other more standard approaches have failed.

This book is somewhat of a primer on the topic and contains a number of articles written by individuals in the field.

This book is odd in that while it is largely academic it also includes a number of more subjective, oftentimes controversial takes on the use of psychedelic substances (particularly ketamine, with occasional reference to LSD, MDMA, psilocybin, etc.).

imho, the book would have been better off leaving out some of these more subjective/controversial aspects to appeal to a wider audience. The choice to start with subjective personal experiences is particularly unhelpful.

That said, there is much in this volume to commend it. You'll learn about various approaches to the use of ketamine in treatment of mental disorders (particularly but not exclusively depression). It is obvious from some of the academic articles included that this is not a crackpot endeavor by a few rogue practitioners and then great thought has been put into maximizing effectiveness while minimizing risk (including attention to the addictive potential of ketamine).

This book covers more (becoming) standard approaches to ketamine treatment (sub-dissociative doses) but tends to favor higher doses (though still significantly lower than used for anesthesia) to induce dissociative states which are seen as being powerful tools in overcoming trauma and problems.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that I have explored the realm of psychedelic assisted psychotherapy - it became time to look into the only legal psychedelic available in Canada (and most other places) today, Ketamine. Ketamine has been in the news a lot, but many people are unaware of its psychedelic properties and how those properties impact the effectiveness of this therapy. Wolfson's book is the the authoritative text for anyone interested in this aspect of ketamine and its applicability as a therapy for mental health conditions of all sorts. This book includes fascinating historical excerpts for the pioneers who discovered the therapy to broad reviews of the recent literature on ketamine in all of its formulations, as well as practical dosing, intervention and consent guidelines. There is something for all of us who are interested in this revolutionary therapy, a truly comprehensive resource.

[Hazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

i enjoyed some of the anecdotal experiences but at the end of the day, they were anecdotal. There are many mysterious aspects regarding ketamine. I'm not sure we will ever have an answer for these things though....

[Ally Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was interesting though felt a bit out dated - science and medicine move fast and this book was a reminder of that. Ketamine therapies have come a long way since this book was published but was still happy to hear about its history. This book made me want to go to Esalen and do drugs with my friends ~for science~. The personal accounts of ketamine use were great depictions of psychedelic experiences - I can see myself giving them to those who have never had any psychedelic experiences to explain the journey and it’s impact. The science stuff though.. felt a little pointless to go through knowing what we know today and about the direction the substance is moving in.

[Finbar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great place to start for anyone interested in exploring the potential clinical uses for Ketamine. Phil Wolfson uses his remarkable faculty of offering direct and transparent experiences of his clinical use of this molecule in a psychotherapeutic model as well as providing a survey of the research and inquiry into the technology of this molecule. The overview of the Ketamine molecule provides a history of its use, and abuse, and a model for employing Ketamine to help provide patients with a therapeutic and transformative understanding of the Self.

[John Mannheimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing insights into the transcendental effects and psychotherapeutic uses of a truly fascinating substance. I heard.

[Joshua Line]

'Relaxing of control and resorting to observation of the flow of experience are important means for having an experience that is beneficial.'

'Depression is as old as mammalian life itself. Grief, the sensations of loss, aloneness, frustrated desire, hopelessness, resignation, despair come along with mothering - as do attachment, affection, education, empathy, protectiveness, and connection.'

[ar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, lots of helpful stuff, but it's not really a book as much as a collection of papers. this means there's a good deal of repetition and disorganization. The ebook version was full of formatting and spelling mistakes.

[Ben Cocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for any practitioner interested in incorporating ketamine into their practice. Papers in the collection provide in-depth descriptions of the history, pharmacology, ethics/consent processes, risks, benefits, and clinical utility of ketamine.

[Mike Skinner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and helpful - has a bit of everything - very scientific articles, first-person/recreational accounts, accounts of historical record, and use in psychotherapy.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting compilation. Though at times redundant, the papers provide a diverse array of perspectives and angles on the matter ranging from memoir to biography to clinical recommendations.

[Gil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good primer for anyone who is looking to add psychodelic work into their therapy practice.