Can Magic Mushrooms Unlock Depression?: A Rhetorical Analysis
On February 28, 2017, clinical psychologist Rosalind Watts gave a TED Talk on the use of psychedelic drugs to improve symptoms of depression. Watts, who currently works at Imperial College in a psychedelic study program, is speaking to the audience at a TEDx event that was organized by the local community in an attempt to raise awareness about the fact that although these psychedelics are illegal, they have made a massive difference in the lives of people suffering from depression. In this speech, Watts attempts to convince the audience that compared to some of the more traditional methods of treating depression, such as antidepressants and talking therapy, psilocybin, or magic mushrooms, have a far more effective impact and long-term impact on patients. Watts also understands that most people are skeptical of this practice, and talks about how these drugs are illegal for consumption, but formulates an argument that they should not be. She is very passionate about her research that has been conducted at the Imperial College and presents it to the audience in many different ways.
Watts presents her claims in a very welcoming and engaging way; she begins by telling the stories of people who suffered from depression, and continues to appeal to the audience’s emotions by consistently implementing peoples’ stories to serve as examples of her data. Her language is a progressive combination of formal and informal for the reason that her content sometimes gets very complex, and she must phrase some of the more difficult concepts in a way that any audience member would understand without prior knowledge on the topic. There is a very powerful line that Watts makes at the beginning of her speech, “What do these mushrooms know that we don’t?” (Watts 1:36). This line, along with many more from her speech, draws the audience in and heightens the vastness of this problem regarding psilocybin. Her speech is primarily a narrative, she begins by introducing a few of her patients and sharing their experiences with psilocybin, then continues to tell the story of her research team and the experiments they conducted with the magic mushrooms and how they benefited their patients.
Watts’ method of approach is through an oral presentation, but that does not inhibit her from displaying her data and explaining her claims. Behind her is a large screen that she is able to control, and she uses this screen for various reasons: she displays examples of brain scans conducted on her patients and uses images to illustrate her claims. Something else she uses the screen for is something that appeals to the audience in a very emotional way. As Watts tells the stories of her patients, she displays images of them, post-psilocybin treatment. These people look very happy, and as she explains how severe their depressive symptoms used to be, the audience can see how they have changed, and that smiling picture of them provides an emotional connection between the patient and Watts, the patient and the audience, and even works as a persuasive strategy for anyone considering using psychedelic treatments. Watts organizes her speech in a way that makes this difficult topic very understandable for anyone in the audience; she uses all types of appeals to further persuade the audience that these microdosing methods are more beneficial than harmful. She appeals to the emotions of the audience by providing relatable examples, she appeals to their ethical influences by discussing the fact that while these drugs are illegal, they are much more beneficial than standard treatments for depression. While explaining her research, she concludes compared to antidepressants, which take weeks to kick in and come with hazardous side effects, psilocybin treatment was much preferred among her patients because of its long-term effects and lack of side effects (Watts 6:32). Thus, claiming that the government’s ban towards these drug treatments is not only unfair to the researchers, but is unfair to the patients as it is stripping them of an opportunity to potentially cure their depressive symptoms. Her logical appeals are obvious; she provides numerous examples of her research and data and backs them up with the fact that she comes from a very renounced university that has been conducting studies on psychedelic treatments and therapies for a long time.
In her speech, Rosalind Watts tackles the controversial topic of microdosing magic mushrooms, and she uses a plethora of rhetorical methods to portray her claims and introduce a complex topic to people with no background knowledge. With a background in the field, she is able to provide data and examples of her research to even further prove her claims and create stories that go beyond the statistics of microdosing. She uses various approaches to persuade her audience to believe in the fact that these psilocybin treatments are beneficial to treating depression, and although they are outlawed, do more good than the traditional practices in her field.
WORKS CITED
[TEDx Talks] (2017, Feb 28). Can Magic Mushrooms Unlock Depression? |Rosalind Watts| TEDxOxford. [Video file] Retrieved from:
