From Healing to Commodity: The Global North’s Approach to Psychedelic Therapy

A new article published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies warns that psychedelic therapy, as it is being embraced in Western psychology, risks losing its transformative potential. The study, led by Emilia Sanabria of France and Luís Fernando Tófoli of Brazil, critiques the way integration—the process of making sense of and applying psychedelic experiences—is becoming an individualized, commodified service that mirrors the dominant psychiatric approach to mental health.

The authors argue that this model, emerging in the Global North, disconnects psychedelics from their historically communal and relational contexts. Rather than engaging with the structural causes of distress, psychedelic therapy is being shaped into a marketable tool, neatly packaged for personal development. At its core, they contend, the Western model of integration prioritizes self-discipline, personal insight, and the idea of an individual “hero’s journey” over collective healing.

“What, we wonder, would theories of psychedelic integration look like if the core theme of Campbell’s ‘Monomyth’ had been that meaningful transformation is an inherently collective process?” they ask.

In contrast to traditions in the Global South, where psychedelics are often understood through shared rituals and collective meaning-making, Western psychology treats them as another intervention in an already medicalized system. The result, the authors warn, is a process that risks becoming another consumer product that reinforces the same neoliberal, individualistic values that contribute to distress in the first place.

The Global North’s Pattern of Extraction and Commodification

The study situates the issue of psychedelic integration within a larger history of how Western psychology engages with non-Western knowledge systems. The authors note that while the Global North has largely dismissed or stigmatized psychedelic traditions for decades, it is now “integrating” them—but on terms dictated by market-driven healthcare systems.

As psychedelics gain recognition in Western psychiatry, they risk being absorbed into the same structures that have led to the overmedicalization of psychological distress. Sanabria and Tófoli argue that, rather than treating psychedelics as just another psychiatric tool, integration must remain “a collective, context-sensitive process that emphasizes the social and relational aspects of healing.”

“Increasingly individualized and commodified approaches to psychedelic integration prevalent in the Global North risk disconnecting integration from its socially embedded transformative potential. By moving beyond a narrow focus on personal agency and self-reflection, we propose a model that includes diverse knowledge systems, cultural traditions, and interdisciplinary insights, addressing the interconnectedness of individuals and their social worlds.”

The authors express concern that without a fundamental shift in approach, the integration of psychedelics into Western mental healthcare could follow the same trajectory as psychotropic medications: promoted as quick-fix solutions while failing to address the underlying social and economic conditions that shape mental distress.

“Reflecting on our observations of psychedelic integration practices, we make three key observations. The first is that integration services tend to focus on the individual, at the expense of considering how societal factors lead to dis-ease. The second observation is that integration is increasingly rendered in formulaic checklists, at the expense of remaining an open-ended praxis, which runs the risk of emptying it of their potential to bring context-dependent change for people. Our third observation is that integration services are increasingly rendered as marketable services.”

Psychedelic Integration and the “Hero’s Journey”

Sanabria and Tófoli trace a “genealogy of the concept” of psychedelic integration, mapping its evolution across psychology, folklore, and cultural narratives. A central thread in this genealogy is the “hero’s journey”, a framework popularized by Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth, which portrays transformation as a solitary quest. In this model, an individual embarks on an adventure, faces trials, and returns home changed. Within psychedelic therapy, this metaphor has shaped the way integration is understood—positioning it as a personal, internal process rather than a relational or collective one.

The authors argue that this framing is “ruggedly individual and toxically masculine,” reinforcing an ethos of self-discipline and mastery that obscures the broader social and structural forces shaping mental distress. They ask, “What, we wonder, would theories of psychedelic integration look like if the core theme of Campbell’s ‘Monomyth’ had been that meaningful transformation is an inherently collective process?” By focusing on individual transcendence, this model risks stripping integration of its deeper, context-dependent potential.

Their critique extends beyond metaphor, pointing to how integration is increasingly reduced to “formulaic checklists”—a shift that standardizes and flattens what should be an open-ended, evolving praxis. They also highlight the growing commodification of integration services, warning that these market-driven approaches sever psychedelic healing from its “socially embedded transformative potential.” In response, the authors advocate for a broader, more collective understanding of integration that resists neoliberal frameworks and prioritizes community, relationality, and structural change.

Psychedelic Therapy as a Neoliberal Product?

Sanabria and Tófoli situate their critique within the broader context of neoliberalism, arguing that psychology and psychiatry in the Global North have become industries shaped by market logic rather than an ethic of care. In this system, distress is repackaged as a set of discrete, individualized disorders, and healing is fragmented into billable services, neatly contained within diagnostic categories and standardized treatment plans. The authors argue that this “checklist” approach to mental health reflects the pervasive influence of neoliberal ideology, which reduces well-being to a personal responsibility rather than recognizing it as deeply embedded in social, economic, and political conditions.

They warn that the current push to integrate psychedelics into Western mental healthcare risks subjecting them to this same commodification. Western psychology is moving toward pre-packaged, market-driven models of psychedelic-assisted therapy, where access is contingent on financial resources and healing is treated as an individual pursuit rather than a collective or structural concern.

The authors emphasize that this is not simply a theoretical concern but an urgent ethical dilemma. Psychedelics hold promise for those in distress, yet their incorporation into mainstream psychology threatens to strip them of their relational and contextual depth, reshaping them into another tool for personal optimization within an economy of self-improvement. The question, then, is not merely how to integrate psychedelics into existing mental health frameworks, but whether those frameworks—rooted in medicalization, individualism, and profit-seeking—are even capable of supporting the kind of transformation that psychedelic healing offers.

Sanabria and Tófoli insist that if psychedelics are to be meaningfully integrated, the process must resist the logic of commodification. Rather than following the trajectory of psychiatric drugs, where antidepressants and other psychotropics have been absorbed into a system that prioritizes scalability and efficiency over relational care, psychedelic therapies must be approached through models that center community, reciprocity, and collective healing. Anything less, they argue, risks not integration, but assimilation into the very structures that have historically pathologized and alienated those seeking relief.

This concern is not new. Scholars have previously warned about the risks of “corporadelics”—corporations attempting to control and profit from psychedelic medicine. The authors of the current study argue that, rather than becoming another cog in the mental health industry, psychedelic therapy must resist these pressures and prioritize accessibility, cultural humility, and non-hierarchical approaches.

Rethinking Integration: Toward a More Ethical and Community-Based Model

The authors call for an approach to psychedelic integration that resists the Global North’s tendency toward individualism and commodification. They argue that true integration should not be a set of techniques applied to individuals, but a process rooted in collective experience, cultural traditions, and diverse ways of knowing.

By recognizing the importance of relational healing, structural conditions, and non-Western frameworks of understanding, psychedelic therapy could break from the patterns of traditional psychiatry and offer genuinely transformative possibilities. However, this requires a conscious effort to prevent the replication of existing power imbalances, particularly between the Global North and Global South.

Sanabria and Tófoli’s work invites practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to critically reflect on how psychedelics are being integrated into mainstream mental health systems. Will they become just another psychiatric intervention, subject to the same economic and ideological constraints as existing treatments? Or can they remain a space for radical healing and reimagining mental healthcare?

As interest in psychedelics continues to grow, these questions will become increasingly urgent. The answer, the authors suggest, depends on whether integration is understood as a communal, context-sensitive process—or as yet another product for sale in the global mental health marketplace.

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Sanabria, E., & Tófoli, L. F. (2025). Integration or commodification? A critical review of individual-centered approaches in psychedelic healing. Journal of Psychedelic Studies (published online ahead of print 2025). https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2024.00411 (Link)