You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In Expansion and Regression in Oceanic Experience, Peoples and Rundel examine “what happens from a psychoanalytic perspective when a patient engages in psychedelic-assisted therapy.” In an elegant paper that has both a clinical and theoretical focus, they discuss what Romain Rolland described metaphorically as the “oceanic feeling.” They believe such feelings can have transformative value, in contrast with what they see as a prevailing tendency among psychoanalysts, including me, to view such experiences as indications of pathological fusion and unhealthy regression. Here, I clarify my own relational perspective on unitive feelings and apply this to the case vignette offered in Peoples and Rundel’s paper. I highlight convergences and contrasts between this relational perspective and the far-reaching model of levels of consciousness proposed by Peoples and Rundel.