Description
Psychedelic therapies have shown promising results in the treatment of mental health conditions, yet growing evidence suggests that their effects cannot be understood solely through pharmacology. Extra-pharmacological factors – often referred to as set and setting – play a crucial role in shaping both therapeutic outcomes and risks, but remain insufficiently theorised, measured, and operationalised in clinical research.
This doctoral project investigates how contextual, relational, and cultural factors shape psychedelic experiences and their therapeutic effects. It adopts a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, combining ethnographic research on Indigenous ritual uses of ayahuasca in the Peruvian Amazon with qualitative and mixed-methods studies of psychedelic clinical trials conducted in Europe.
The doctoral candidate will collect and analyse first-person accounts of psychedelic experiences using qualitative interviews, ethnographic observation, and computational linguistic techniques applied to narrative data. These materials will be complemented by a systematic narrative review of existing clinical and anthropological literature.
The project aims to identify core extra-pharmacological factors that influence safety, meaning-making, and therapeutic change, and to explore the mechanisms through which these factors operate. Expected outcomes include empirically grounded models of set and setting, open datasets on contextual variables, and practical guidelines for measuring and integrating contextual factors into future psychedelic clinical trials.
Location
French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) (Paris, France); PhD enrolment at School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) (Paris, France)
Supervisors
Supervisor:
Dr David Dupuis (INSERM/IRIS/EHESS, Paris, France)
https://iris.ehess.fr/index.php?5228
Co-supervisor:
Dr Margot Morgiève (INSERM / CERMES, France)
Cermes3 – Margot Morgiève
Secondments
Institute: Onaya Science (Peru/United Kingdom)
Supervisors: Dr Simon Ruffell
Purpose: Onaya Science is a non-profit research institute dedicated to translating Indigenous knowledge into scientifically operationalisable frameworks. Working in close collaboration with Amazonian practitioners, the institute investigates the ritual use of ayahuasca in real-world settings across diverse cultural contexts. This secondment will enable the DC to examine contextual and extra-pharmacological factors beyond the confines of controlled clinical trials, drawing on decades of situated practice and empirical knowledge. The placement will provide hands-on exposure to Indigenous and community-based research approaches, allowing the DC to analyse how cultural, relational, and environmental variables shape psychedelic experiences. These insights will be systematically translated into concepts, variables, and methodological tools relevant for contemporary clinical research and trial design.
Institute: University of Exeter (Exeter, United Kingdom)
Supervisors: Dr Leor Roseman
Purpose: This secondment will offer the DC advanced interdisciplinary training at the interface of neuroscience, psychology, phenomenology, and anthropology. Under the supervision of Dr Leor Roseman, the DC will explore contextual factors in psychedelic therapy using complementary neurocognitive, qualitative, and phenomenological methods. The placement will provide methodological training in mixed and multimodal approaches, including qualitative analysis, micro-phenomenology, and the interpretation of neuroimaging-informed research. This secondment will strengthen the DC’s capacity to integrate experiential, cognitive, and neural perspectives on set and setting, and to bridge ethnographic findings with contemporary models used in psychedelic clinical research.
General eligibility criteria
- The position is open to candidates of any nationality (European and non-European) who fulfil the requirements set for the Doctoral Candidates (DCs) funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.
- Applicants must hold a Master’s degree in a relevant academic field, allowing enrolment in a PhD program at the hiring beneficiary.
- Applicants must not previously have been awarded a PhD degree.
- Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country in which the DC project for which they are applying is based for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to recruitment. This excludes short stays such as holidays, compulsory national service or time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention.
- Applicants must be willing to undertake secondments at another institute of the network during the DC project, including at institutes in other countries.
- Applicants must be able to demonstrate their ability to understand and express themselves in both written and spoken English at a level that is sufficiently high to fully benefit from the network training (C1/C2 level).
- Applicants are expected to be motivated to work in the field of psychedelic therapy.
- Applicants are expected to work independently, well-structured and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary consortium.
Additional eligibility criteria
A Master’s degree in anthropology, psychology, cognitive science, psychiatry, or a related discipline.
Demonstrated interest in psychedelic research, mental health, and/or qualitative and mixed-methods approaches.
Prior experience with ethnographic or qualitative research is an advantage but not required.
Proficiency in French is considered an asset but is not required.