Past talk · Tuesday, 6 October 2026
Are the Ethical Challenges of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Exceptional?
PD Dr. Dr. Daniel Villiger
About the talk
Psychedelic-assisted therapy is often portrayed as exceptional because of psychedelics’ unusual features. This talk asks whether those features justify exceptional normative treatment and examines four prominent areas of debate: informed consent, therapists’ personal psychedelic experience, clinical trial design, and heightened patient vulnerability. I argue that while three of these presumed cases of psychedelic exceptionalism are either not exceptional after all or not sufficiently justified, enhanced vulnerability during psychedelic sessions may require genuinely distinctive safeguards.
About the speaker
PD Dr. Dr. Daniel Villiger is a philosopher and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich. His research spans decision theory, rationality, bioethics, and cognitive science; his habilitation examined philosophical issues in psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Time and venue
18:30–19:30
Universität Zürich · HAH-E-03, Häldeliweg 2, 8044 Zürich
Free public lecture · Zürich
