Books
A Psychedelic Diary
This book consists of 18 essays written over an 18-month period based on observations, ideas and knowledge related to research into psychedelic substances used in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Subjects discussed are eclectic ranging from personal anecdotes, the relationship between psychedelics and psychiatry, what makes a good psychedelic therapist, the stigma still attached to psychedelics, the history of psychedelics, euthanasia and psychedelics, peak and plateau experiences, Einstein, and mysticism, and more.
The essays were written to demonstrate that psychedelic medicines are not like traditional psychiatric drugs such as anti-depressants and tranquilisers. Psychedelic drugs are generally used as adjuncts to psychotherapy and their use demands that therapists involved in this type of treatment process broaden their personal understanding of what constitutes the human condition. Psychedelics facilitate non-ordinary states of consciousness, and a thorough understanding of what that means psychologically and humanistically, is an essential pre-requisite for anyone doing this work.
Theology, sociology, philosophy and hermeneutics all have a role to play in this work and these essays attempt to provide an entertaining but also thoughtful and informative approach to this academic and practical pursuit.
The essays have been written not only to inspire and instruct psychedelic psychotherapists and researchers, but also to educate potential patients and informed readers amongst the general public, who are increasingly showing an interest in this new exciting, but also controversial, treatment approach.
Australia has become the first country in the world to allow authorised psychiatrists to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin for treatment-resistant PTSD and depression. This decision has caused a good deal of controversy, and Dr Strauss is at the forefront of that debate as an informed psychedelic researcher and communicator. He has been a medical practitioner for 50 years, a psychiatrist for 45 years and he is an Honorary Psychiatric Consultant at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne.
Front cover artwork by Therese Strauss
The Asylum Seekers
During his career assessing and managing PTSD sufferers including veterans, first responders, accident, and bushfire victims, as well as victims of physical, sexual and psychological violence, Dr Strauss became increasingly frustrated at how so many PTSD sufferers were not being significantly assisted by conventional treatments. Time and time again traumatised individuals with high levels of anxiety could not go back and work through, or reprocess their trauma, and successfully move on. Rather they remained stuck in their painful memories, nightmares and overwhelming anxiety. Of course, some recovered but many did not.
So, when Dr Strauss was introduced to Rick Doblin, the founder of MAPS through his friends at PRISM, Martin Williams and Steve Bright, in Melbourne all those years ago, it was the beginning of a great adventure for him. But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, especially for someone who suffers from the disease of impatience.
He can remember returning from his MAPS training in Tyringham in the UK run by Michael Mithoeffer and his wife Annie in 2014, so full of boundless enthusiasm and keen to get things happening in Australia. Martin Williams and Dr Strauss proposed a proof-of-concept MDMA assisted psychotherapy for PTSD study, sponsored by MAPS at Deakin University, where he held an academic position. The night before the protocol was to go before the ethics committee it was rejected by the Vice-Chancellor of research on the grounds that suggested that MAPS was a corrupt organisation which promoted illegal and anti-social activities.
Soon after that, Dr Strauss attended a PTSD forum in Brisbane run by the Queensland RSL where a key recommendation which came out of the conference was that “support for research and initiatives dedicated to adjunct/second line therapies in the management of PTSD is vital”. But his experience at the forum was disheartening because at that stage no-one wanted to hear about psychedelic drugs, let alone include them as part of a therapeutic process. From Dr Strauss:
“I won’t bore you with the rejections that I and my colleagues continued to face. My way of dealing with it all was to write a novel, “The Asylum Seekers” about how the lives of many people can be harmed when only one person they are all close to, suffers trauma that remains untreated.
It’s the tale of Tom, a soldier who sustains severe injuries while fighting with the Australian forces in Afghanistan. Saved by locals he returns to Australia a broken man. With his life in tatters Tom escapes from all that he has known and loved and embarks on a challenging adventure to find peace of mind and establish his own sanctuary.
This is an intense psychological exploration of what happens to people who find themselves existentially and geographically displaced. It is a fictional story based on real characters I have encountered in my clinical practice. It particularly highlights the problems associated with psychological traumatization and how even today post-traumatic stress remains a condition too often undiagnosed or undertreated.”
Apollo’s Lookout
Not everyone seeks meaning in their lives. But for those who do, there are certain themes that attract our notice. They include the awareness of our own mortality, the meaning and purpose of suffering and alienation, and deep questions about the origins and nature of the world
Dr Nigel Strauss, psychiatrist, healer, thinker, poet, and passionate human being, has drawn forth in this absorbing book his ponderings into the basis of our existence, the reasons for our being here and the best way to live our lives. Dr Strauss has pursued mystery, not with the intention of finding answers, but rather enchantment. He asks: Can a map be drawn around uncertainty?
Through personal and professional experience, the author has followed an unusual path into the realms of theology, mythology and philosophy with the particular intention of exploring humankind's relationship to nature.
By taking the great classical god Apollo out of his own "spiritual home" at Apollo Bay, a quiet but beautiful town on Australia's south caster coast. Dr Strauss takes the reader on a voyage of discovery through the human condition and the forces of nature that inhabit it.
This is a most moving book, profoundly honest and insightful, illuminated with a great love of the natural world and a luminous intelligence that charts the progress of a single human journey, the growth of personal understanding and the affirmation of the forces that underpin all life.
Apollo's Lookout offers hope and reassurance to those who may be overly perplexed or benumbed by the busyness and noisiness of modern life. It is not a self help book, but an example of how it is still possible for a contemporary individual to find personal meaning in a soulless, turbulent world.
