The myopia theory was first suggested by psychologists Claude Steele and Robert Josephs, and what they meant by myopia is that alcohol’s principal effect is to narrow our emotional and mental fields of vision. It creates, in their words, “a state of shortsightedness in which superficially [not thoroughly or deeply] understood, immediate aspects of experience have a disproportionate influence on behavior and emotion.” Alcohol makes the thing in the foreground even more salient [most noticable or important] and the thing in the background less significant. It makes short-term considerations loom large, and more cognitively demanding [requires more thinking], longer-term considerations fade away. — Gladwell, Talking to Strangers, 207
Mescaline is the oldest psychedelic. Can it alleviate alcohol use disorder?
It’s easy to understand why Jeeshan Chowdhury, the founder and chief executive of startup Journey Colab, believes strongly in the potential of mescaline to treat…