Psychedelics have always been big business, but lately they have become the center of a rapidly growing consciousness-expanding industry. We will consider this so-called “psychedelic renaissance” in light of philosopher and historian Michel Foucault’s critique of neoliberalism, especially after his fabled Death Valley acid trip in 1975. How might Foucault help prepare us for the new wave of psychedelic commerce? What, exactly, is new about it? Or is it really just business as usual?

Nathan Gorelick is Term Assistant Professor of English at Barnard College. Previously, he was Associate Professor of English at Utah Valley University, and he holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has published widely on the intersections of literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. His first book, The Unwritten Enlightenment, is forthcoming from Northwestern University Press. He is currently researching the history of the relation between psychedelics and the Freudian field, as well as how this relation may be reinvented today.