Altered States of Mind

Iva Totomanova is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology at Maastricht University. During her masters, she already focused on Drug Development and Neurohealth, now in her PhD she explores the potential of psychedelics to be used as novel treatment options for a range of sychiatric disorders. Specifically, she is focused on examining the capacity of LSD microdoses to alleviate symptoms of adult ADHD. Next to this, she is involved in a range of other projects exploring psychedelic microdosing and the factors that contribute to inter-individual differences in the practice and experienced effects of microdosing.
How do classical psychedelic substances, like LSD and psilocybin change one’s perception of themselves? How do both high and low doses of psychedelics lead to a perspective shift and thus, to a personally transformative experience? In what ways they can potentially be applied to produce beneficial outcomes? She will answer all these questions, supported by neuroscientific findings on psychedelics and the brain and map out the future of the field.

Konstantinos Savva is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Work and Social Psychology at Maastricht University. He is a Social Psychologist by training, and he’s focus lies in intergroup relations. Specifically, differences of advantaged and disadvantaged groups and how advantaged members of a group support (or do not support) social change towards a more equal society. We all navigate the world with multiple social identities, but not all of them are equally visible to us. Some identities, especially those tied to being advantaged, often go unnoticed, as they are treated as the norm. In this talk, he will focus on the invisibility of privilege: how advantaged group members are often unaware of their privileged position, and what happens when this privilege becomes visible. Pointing out (illegitimate) privilege can trigger a range of reactions, from defensiveness to reflection, which can influence how advantaged people respond to efforts toward equality.