Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World describes a futuristic society pacified by a daily dose of soma—a drug that ensures collective compliance and emotional numbness at the expense of curiosity, dissent, and authentic feeling. As an addiction psychiatrist and clinician who offers Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP), I often find myself reflecting on the parallels between Huxley’s vision and the rapidly expanding, commercialized use of ketamine in modern psychiatry.
Ketamine has undeniable therapeutic potential
Ketamine has undeniable therapeutic potential. When delivered within a structured, multidisciplinary framework—including careful preparation, guided administration, and integrative psychotherapy—it can be profoundly transformative. It offers individuals the possibility of loosening rigid patterns of thought, healing trauma, and reconnecting with meaning. However, when ketamine is prescribed or distributed without context—especially in the form of at-home lozenges or mail-order businesses —it risks becoming another agent of sedation rather than liberation: a pharmacologic shortcut that soothes symptoms while bypassing deeper work.
If divorced from therapeutic context, it may contribute to collective emotional blunting.
As research continues with ketamine, I am becoming more aware of the dual nature as both a catalyst for awakening and a tool that, if divorced from therapeutic context, may contribute to collective emotional blunting.
At At Home–LA, our team hosted a small gathering of clinicians for a shared conversation on best practices for ketamine work, ethical prescribing, the importance of preparation and integration, and the dangers of how convenience and commercialization can shape its path. As a community, I’m confident we can help define a thoughtful and ethical role for ketamine in the future of psychiatry and psychotherapy.