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Hugh McGovern PhD

@htmcgovern.bsky.social

536 followers 431 following 106 posts

Research Affiliate, Clinical Psychedelic Lab, Monash University| psychedelics, theoretical neuroscience, clinical psychology, AI.

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Being a psychedelic enthusiast accounts for a huge amount of how psychedelics increase quality of life. In other words, the drug is not the territory. Will publish on this issue soon.

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

These extra components make trauma focused therapy difficult here because the foundation needed (i.e., a stable self model and how trauma impacted it) to process trauma was not able to be formed. For those more inclined toward predictive processing, I attached another figure to show the difference.

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

In this figure we are showing what distinguishes complex-PTSD to PTSD. A main difference being the fact that complex PTSD impacts the ability to effectively model one's self given alterations to the insula cortex (a hub which allows for self-modelling).

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Good to see this paper out. We propose a novel (and I must say speculative) neurocognitive account of complex PTSD using predictive processing, and discuss why MDMA therapy may be well suited to complex PTSD.

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

It's seen three US presidencies, is older than my kindergartener, but it's finally out there. Great to see this published and it was a lot of fun working on it with some great friends 🎉 doi.org/10.1177/1029...

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

It's really good to see AE's being reported right in the abstract, alongside benefits. From leading Australian psychedelic researchers 🙂

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

As such, archetypes continue not because they are eternal, but because brains keep recursively reinstantiating the same broad motifs in local context. This is one example which describes this type of mechanism of how archetypal stories may emerge.

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

REBUS effects from psychedelics, in loosening classical constraints imposed from the default mode network, permits the type of archetypal imagery often reported under psychedelics to enter conscious awareness.

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

....subcortical affective systems, low level sensory imagery, and higher level narrative cognition. It is the interplay between these systems that given rise to (in order) archetypes as such, archetypal imagery, and archetypal stories.

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

New paper in @nconsc.bsky.social with @marcoaqil.bsky.social, Selen Atasoy, and @robincarhartharris.bsky.social. An ambitious one to be sure..... doi.org/10.1093/nc/n...

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Now recruiting participants for a study assessing if positive self-reflective journaling can help improve various aspects of wellbeing. Open to all! cairnmillar.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

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Hugh McGovern PhD @htmcgovern.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

One passage I found a little bit wanting: the fact that not everyone with severe ACE's develops subsequent PTSD/C-PTSD, doesn't mean that the ACE couldn't have been a causal factor in those who do (after severe ACE's) develop PTSD.....

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