DOI: 10.17151/culdr.2025.30.40.3
How to Cite
Plaza-Gómez, N., Fernández-Vilas, E., & Coca, J. R. (2025). A Cultural history of psychedelics: shifting values and reinterpretation in late modernity. Cultura Y Droga, 30(40), 37–68. https://doi.org/10.17151/culdr.2025.30.40.3

Authors

Nicolás Plaza-Gómez
Universidad de Salamanca 
nicolas.plaza@uva.es
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0077-6234
Perfil Google Scholar
Enrique Fernández-Vilas
Universidad de Valladolid 
enrique.fvilas@uva.es
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3107-6337
Perfil Google Scholar

Abstract

Psychedelics are a symbol of Postmodernity. The increased interest in them at different stages in the history of modern societies reflects values antagonistic to those that led to their prohibition. Through a theoretical review, the construction of social discourses focused on the positive potential of psychedelics is related to post-materialist values and expressive individualism, while the construction of the prohibitionist discourse is associated with conservative morality and materialistic and pragmatic individualism. The psychedelic revolutions manifested in science and society are deeply influenced by this change of values.

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