Award-Winning Journalist Erica Rex Confronts Big Pharma and Therapy Culture in SEEING WHAT IS THERE

For fans of Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary, this memoir charts one woman’s battle with CPTSD and her search for healing through psychedelics.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, October 3, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Journalist and breast cancer survivor Erica Rex, one of the first patients in the Johns Hopkins psilocybin trials, will release her memoir, SEEING WHAT IS THERE: My Search for Sanity in the Psychedelic Era, in January 2026. Distributed by Simon & Schuster, the book blends lived trauma, science reporting, and cultural critique into an unflinching account of the modern psychedelic movement.

This is not another utopian tale of magic mushrooms and retreats. Rex insists psychedelic medicine is no cure-all. Instead, she situates her story—and the larger story—inside a confrontation with childhood abuse, failed psychiatry, Big Pharma, and corporatized trauma treatment.

Rex has written for The New York Times, Scientific American, The Independent, Poets & Writers, and Salon. A National Magazine Award winner for fiction and a Columbia Journalism fellow, she has reported on health and neuroscience. In 2012, while battling depression during breast cancer treatment, she entered Johns Hopkins’ psilocybin-assisted therapy trial and later chronicled the experience in Scientific American Mind.

In SEEING WHAT IS THERE, she places that trial inside a larger story of survival. As the daughter of two psychiatrists—her mother trained under Harvard psychologist Henry A. Murray, whose experiments shaped Ted Kaczynski—Rex endured violent psychiatric “treatments” as a child. That abuse caused lifelong Complex PTSD. Her memoir shows how healing systems often deepen wounds, and why psychedelics carry risks.

The book argues healing requires more than pharmacology. Psilocybin, MDMA, ayahuasca, and 5-MeO-DMT can trigger states, but without community, ethical support, and economic safety, they risk becoming another arm of the psychopharmaceutical industry. Rex asks: What happens when venture capitalists define healing? How do mystical states integrate in unequal societies? Why treat psychedelics as pills instead of practices?

Her themes include psychiatric abuse, trial experience, critiques of investor-backed clinics, and warnings about therapy culture and risks for women.

“An extraordinary, beautifully written account of one woman’s lifelong journey out of unimaginable childhood trauma… Hers is a singular and prophetic voice, summoning the healing power of community in a culture that has pathologized human suffering.”
—Stephen Mills, author of Chosen: A Memoir of Stolen Boyhood

“This important memoir critiques psychiatry and the psychedelic movement, exploring trauma, healing, and the ethical challenges of contemporary practice. Through her journey with psilocybin, MDMA, and 5-MeO-DMT, Erica Rex reveals the promise of transformation while advocating for a future where true healing includes social support, equity, and community.”
—Joe Moore, Co-Founder & CEO, Psychedelics Today

“A brave, passionate, and beautiful book that combines scholarship, research, and lived truth. Difficult at times, but impossible to put down—it will leave you wiser, shaken, and opened in ways few books ever do.”
—Jeffrey Masson, bestselling author of Tell Your Life Story

The release arrives as psilocybin and MDMA near FDA approval, with states weighing legalization and investment pouring in. Yet 13 million Americans suffer from Complex PTSD, and millions of children worldwide endure violence at home. Rex argues for trauma-informed, equitable approaches. Her reporting has appeared in Scientific American and The Independent, and she has advised policymakers including the Congressional Psychedelic Therapy Caucus (PATH).

The memoir is for both readers and professionals. For survivors, it’s a story of resilience. For clinicians, it provides a critical lens on the emerging psychedelic paradigm. For skeptics, it’s an exposé of Big Pharma’s encroachment. For cultural observers, it traces psilocybin research back to 1950s France.

Title: SEEING WHAT IS THERE: My Search for Sanity in the Psychedelic Era
Author: Erica Rex
Publisher: She Writes Press
Distributor: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: January 2026
Formats/Price: Trade Paperback $17.99 | eBook $12.99
Audiobook: Blackstone
Purchase: Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Google Play, Rakuten Kobo, and independent bookstores nationwide.

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