From Stigma to Science: Realities and Visual Storytelling on Psychedelic Companies’ Websites

The promise and hope surrounding the current psychedelic renaissance persists amidst a history clouded by stigma and controversy. Opinions remain polarised throughout society, with views of psychedelics and their users ranging from dangerous to a cure-all for mental health.

Employing a visual analysis, this paper analyses around 3000 images from 140 global publicly and privately listed psychedelic companies’ websites to uncover the narratives these companies convey about future psychedelic treatments and their development and users.

Speaker

Charlie is a Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies and HRM at EBS. Throughout her career so far, she has researched both legal and illegal drug taking in relation to working lives, athletes and organisations more broadly. Charlie also researches mental health and wellbeing and, over the last few years, has married her research interests to focus on psychedelics and the psychedelic industry in its role as potentially providing mental health treatments. Alongside her current work on the visual imagery of psychedelic companies’ websites, she is also researching military veterans’ psychedelic retreat experiences with the Heroic Hearts Project UK.