Yep. AA founder Bill W. was a big proponent of LSD for treating alcoholics, wanted to hand it out at AA meetings, which of course went over with the rest of AA like a lead balloon. He felt it helped him eliminate many barriers erected by the self, or ego, that stand in the way of one's direct experience of the cosmos and of God.
I find that interesting because I think PTSD sufferers share some challenges with addicts of alcohol, opiates, coke, etc., in that in each case there is an emotional wound at the root of either the addiction or the PTSD. With addiction it's usually (in my understanding) related to a lack of love or imagined lack of love from one parent figure or the other, creating an emotional hole that they are always either trying to fill, or merely distracting themselves from its emptiness. With trauma survivors, the trauma experience delivers a shock to the mind and body, creating an emotional wound that doesn't seem to heal, like shrapnel that stays in a wound once it's healed over on the surface.
Here is where I make the specific distinction between 'mental illness' (which implies a long term, systemic dysfunction) and 'mental wounds' (which imply a short-term kind of damage that can be repaired). I find that this is a very clarifying way to look at psychological issues, which are all lumped into 'mental illness' and treated as such - with daily medications, therapy, support groups, and other things one uses to manage disease on an ongoing basis. However, if the illness itself springs from a mental wound, the 'illness' manifestation is really a symptom of a larger underlying problem, and treating the wound becomes more important than managing the illness.
It seems to me that under therapeutic guidance, these (including but not limited to MDMA and LSD) have the potential, each in their different ways, to treat the wound. For this reason, I will be watching the results of the MAPS research very closely over the next many years. Someone's gotta map the territory and see how far down the rabbit-hole goes.
