Out of Mind: the psychology of trance and transcendence

The plan is to reflect on and write about the basic human need for self-abandonment, the drive to step out of mind that is universally expressed in various forms across human cultures.

In particular, the project is to elaborate a new psychological and trans-disciplinary spin on the perennial question of trance and transcendence, trying to make new sense of the psychology behind it. The working hypothesis is that what lays behind the universal human propensity toward self-abandonment and the quest for ecstasy would be primarily a psychological coping mechanism linked to human self-consciousness, in particular human unique and unfathomable (scandalous) awareness of being mortal. Taking a psychological and empirical perspective, the goal is to re-think the meaning of human unique and universal proclivity toward trance and transcendence, with or without drugs, whether in practice or in recreation, with the same ultimate goal of escaping the default state of rational self-consciousness and self-rumination. The project should trigger much interdisciplinary dialogues and exchanges, notwithstanding interest for anybody inclined to ponder the nature and underpinnings of human self-consciousness.

Key publications

Rochat, P. (2022). Finitude : La psychologie du soi et du temps. New York : Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/FINITUDE-The-Psychology-of-Self-and-Time/Rochat/p/book/9781032026893
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- Rochat, P. (2021). Moral Acrobatics :How we avoid ethical ambiguities by thinking the world in black and white. Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/moral-acrobatics-9780190057657
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- Rochat, P. (2018). L'ontogenèse de la conscience de soi humaine. Current Directions in Psychological Sciences, 27 (5), 345-350.