Work

Prácticas en búsqueda de legitimidad: el uso contemporáneo de la ayahuasca, entre reivindicaciones terapéuticas y religiosas

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: In recent decades, the growing interest of Westerners in the psychotropic brew ayahuasca and the participation in exotic rituals has led to the multiplication of "shamanic centers" in the Peruvian Amazon. Among these, Takiwasi is a therapeutic community that welcomes hundreds of national and foreign clients every year. This institution, created by a French physician in 1992, was originally intended to propose a therapeutic alternative for the treatment of addiction, characterized by the use of tools of Peruvian mestizo shamanism, biomedicine and clinical psychology. The diachronic evolution of the institution is however marked by the growing use of elements of the Catholic tradition. In this article, I will examine the hypothesis that these transformations can be interpreted as the effects of the globalization of the use of ayahuasca and its legal and political consequences. Thus, the case of Takiwasi underlines the role played by religious traditions and the medical field in the construction, legitimization and maintenance of new and hybrid practices that are multiplying around the use of ayahuasca.

Source: Salud Colectiva

DOI: 10.18294/sc.2018.1539

Author: David Dupuis

Institution: Durham University

Language: Spanish

Topic: Psychedelics and Drug Studies

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: Wellcome Trust