Draft:Phil Wolfson

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Wolfson has had an unwavering focus on psychotherapy, consciousness, community, social justice, and the spirit as the hallmark of his presence in the psychiatric world for the entirety of his career. Wolfson’s activism began at Brandeis University in the early 1960s where he created a lecture program that included Martin Luther King and Malcom X. At New York University School of Medicine,  in collaboration  with Nobel Prize winner Dickinson W. Richards, and his Hartford Foundation, Wolfson produced the first formal lecture series on community medicine. This series emphasized the racism, sexism, and classist nature of healthcare, and was supported by the New York Academy of Medicine. While studying medicine, he was a principal organizer of the New York Medical Committee to End the War in Vietnam, the National Student Mobilization Committee, and part of the anti-racist, social justice organization, the Medical Committee for Human Rights.

Wolfson’s advocacy for social justice and the right to equal health care included his leadership in the development of the Student Health Programs which promoted education and novel programs in community medicine and equalization of access to health care - with nursing, dental, and medical student organizations forming at many schools nationwide.

Wolfson was born in 1943 in the worst year of  World War II, and as a human and a person of Jewish identity, was from his first moments of consciousness sensitized to the slaughter of innocents and destructive prejudice and intolerance. He grew up in Queens, in New York City with parents who had suffered greatly during the Great Depression. The breakout from the suppression of the McCarthy years was for him and many of his peers what came to be known as the freedom of the Sixties and opened floodgates to personal and social growth. Of great impact was his first experience of psychotherapy at age 17 at college which moved him to a decision to become a psychotherapist and psychiatrist always within a psychosocial context.

Alice Wolfson (nee Jacoby) became his wife in 1968 and they worked closely together organizing for women’s health, Pro Choice, and social justice. The couple had two children Noah (deceased) and Eric – aka Helix Eric Wolfson.

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Completing his tour of duty in the U.S. Public Health Service, Wolfson began working as a psychiatrist in the DC area in 1971, attending programs at the Washington School of Psychiatry including three years of group therapy training.{{Cite journal |last=Rioch |first=M. J. |date=February 1986 |title=Fifty years at the Washington School of Psychiatry |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3517920/ |journal=Psychiatry |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=33–44 |doi=10.1080/00332747.1986.11024305 |issn=0033-2747 |pmid=3517920}} He went on to work as a psychiatrist for four years at the Woodburn Mental Health Center in Annandale, Virginia, ending in 1977. In 1977, Wolfson moved to San Francisco and started working as a psychiatrist first in Richmond and then as Director of I Ward in the Contra Costa County Hospital Mental Health System. I Ward treated patients in their first psychotic breaks with low, or no-dose medication, viewing psychosis as a process that contained amidst its difficulties the possibility of deep change and realization—a la RD Laing, and others. This was deeply influenced by the emerging family and systems approaches to therapy of which Wolfson had been  part of since the early 1970s. I Ward had an explicit focus on the family as the container of the process. It was one of a handful of demonstration programs in the Bay Area (Diabasis, Soteria, Emanon) that sought to heal severe mental illness through process work, rather than suppression.{{Cite journal |last1=Mosher |first1=L. R. |last2=Vallone |first2=R. |last3=Menn |first3=A. |date=1995 |title=The treatment of acute psychosis without neuroleptics: six-week psychopathology outcome data from The Soteria Project |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8847197/ |journal=The International Journal of Social Psychiatry |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=157–173 |doi=10.1177/002076409504100301 |issn=0020-7640 |pmid=8847197}} As part of an emerging global network, Wolfson participated in the Anti-Psychiatry Movement, that embraced social, anti-repressive, and cultural aspects of human lives with regards to psychotherapy.

Starting in 1984, Wolfson entered private practice, was on the psychiatric staff of Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, California and taught at UCSF Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry, and was on faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies and the former JFK University’s Graduate School of Psychology.

The tragic loss of  Wolfson’s son Noah, at age sixteen, due to a four year struggle with leukemia, deepened his personal understanding of loss, PTSD, grief, and mental illness. His book, Noe-a Father/son Song of Love, Life, Sickness, and Death, (2011) documented his experience with loss that would shape his subsequent work in helping others deal with prolonged illness, its impact on family, grief and the effects of profound loss.{{Cite web |last=Journal |first=Marin Independent |date=2011-08-02 |title=Marin father's heartfelt memoir about the death of a son |url=https://www.marinij.com/lifestyle/20110802/marin-fathers-heartfelt-memoir-about-the-death-of-a-son/ |access-date=2024-08-08 |website=Marin Independent Journal |language=en-US}} In the aftermath, in his practice and life, he would devote himself to serving families and individuals suffering with impending death, loss, grief, and survival. For many years, he served as a facilitator for Jerry Jampolsky’s Center for Attitudinal Healing.{{Cite web |title=The 12 Principles of Attitudinal Healing |url=https://heartlightcip.org/12-principals |access-date=2024-08-08 |website=Heartlight Center for Inner Peace |language=en-US}}

Beginning in the 1983, Wolfson closely collaborated with Alexander Shulgin, the foremost American psychopharmacologist, and author to research the potential of psychedelic psychotherapy largely based on work with MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) assisted psychedelic psychotherapy. Wolfson published the first paper on MDMA and family treatment with psychosis.{{Cite journal |last=Wolfson |first=P. E. |date=1986 |title=Meetings at the edge with Adam: a man for all seasons? |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2880947/ |journal=Journal of Psychoactive Drugs |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=329–333 |doi=10.1080/02791072.1986.10472365 |issn=0279-1072 |pmid=2880947}}

Working with couples suffering from conditions such as depression or trauma, they led a dedicated group of psychotherapists and psychiatrists with the support and hosting of Richard Price, co-owner of the Esalen Institute and the psychologist Leo Zeff, among many others. ARUPA, the Association for the Responsible Use of Psychedelic Agents formed to further psychedelic research, and clinical development primarily focused on MDMA work.  This was an informal and ever-expanding group which came together to explore the potential forms of therapy these medicines could provide.{{Cite web |date=2022-06-29 |title=Making MDMA a Medicine (II) (Re)Scheduling for Schedule I Substances |url=https://maps.org/news/bulletin/making-mdma-a-medicine-ii-rescheduling-for-schedule-1-substances/ |access-date=2024-08-08 |website=Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies - MAPS |language=en-US}} When the DEA put these substances into Schedule I in 1986, making them illegal and unavailable for clinical or research work, Wolfson and his colleagues mounted a campaign to keep MDMA legal. The DEA overruled their own Administrative Law Judge, who had found that the medical utility of MDMA would have enabled continued exploration of viable treatments.{{Cite web |title=Introduction to the Legal Records of the DEA Administrative Law Judge Hearings |url=https://maps.org/research-archive/dea-mdma/introhearings.html |access-date=2024-08-08 |website=maps.org}} This legal outcome plus the Analog Drug Act made further open exploration and research of alternative substances impossible and illegal.

Clinical research with MDMA resumed in 1999 with first publication in 2011.{{Cite journal |last1=Mithoefer |first1=Michael C. |last2=Wagner |first2=Mark T. |last3=Mithoefer |first3=Ann T. |last4=Jerome |first4=Lisa |last5=Doblin |first5=Rick |date=April 2011 |title=The safety and efficacy of {+/-}3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with chronic, treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder: the first randomized controlled pilot study |journal=Journal of Psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=439–452 |doi=10.1177/0269881110378371 |issn=1461-7285 |pmc=3122379 |pmid=20643699}} Contributing to this, in 2019, Wolfson completed a Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) sponsored  FDA Phase 2 study of subjects with the anxiety and trauma of having life-threatening illnesses utilizing intensive MDMA psychotherapy.{{Cite journal |last1=Wolfson |first1=Philip E. |last2=Andries |first2=Julane |last3=Feduccia |first3=Allison A. |last4=Jerome |first4=Lisa |last5=Wang |first5=Julie B. |last6=Williams |first6=Emily |last7=Carlin |first7=Shannon C. |last8=Sola |first8=Evan |last9=Hamilton |first9=Scott |last10=Yazar-Klosinski |first10=Berra |last11=Emerson |first11=Amy |last12=Mithoefer |first12=Michael C. |last13=Doblin |first13=Rick |date=2020-11-24 |title=MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of anxiety and other psychological distress related to life-threatening illnesses: a randomized pilot study |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=20442 |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-75706-1 |pmid=33235285 |pmc=7686344 |bibcode=2020NatSR..1020442W |issn=2045-2322}} Given the millions of survivors of life threatening illnesses, and the impacts on them , Wolfson has continued to argue publicly for the need for an extension of the DSM-V diagnosis of PTSD  to PTSD-Life Threatening Illnesses to enable recognition, support and psychotherapy. The 2019 study data demonstrated the success  of this provision of care.{{Cite web |title=MDMA and Life Threatening Illnesses - A Commentary to Our Study |url=https://psychedelic.support/resources/mdma-life-threatening-illness/ |access-date=2024-08-08 |website=psychedelic.support}}

Ketamine and KAP

Wolfson’s first exposure to the power of the ketamine molecule took place in 1990, but it was a decade later that his full exploration of ketamine’s potential as a psychotherapeutic medicine began. In 2014, he opened a clinic in Marin County, California, dedicated to the application of ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP). This practice has been elaborated in numerous publications including The Ketamine Papers in 2016 with Glenn Hartelius.{{Cite web |title=The Ketamine Papers |url=https://maps.org/product/the-ketamine-papers/ |access-date=2024-08-08 |website=Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies - MAPS |language=en-US}}

Throughout his work, Wolfson has continually emphasized the necessity for practitioners of ketamine and alternative medicines to know these powerful substances personally before administering them to patients. Similarly, he emphasized the importance of doing so within the embrace of psychotherapies that are being methodologically developed for these medicines. This was emphasized in the first paper on the clinical use of KAP --reporting on 235 patients in three practices.{{Cite journal |last1=Dore |first1=Jennifer |last2=Turnipseed |first2=Brent |last3=Dwyer |first3=Shannon |last4=Turnipseed |first4=Andrea |last5=Andries |first5=Julane |last6=Ascani |first6=German |last7=Monnette |first7=Celeste |last8=Huidekoper |first8=Angela |last9=Strauss |first9=Nicole |last10=Wolfson |first10=Phil |date=2019 |title=Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP): Patient Demographics, Clinical Data and Outcomes in Three Large Practices Administering Ketamine with Psychotherapy |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30917760/ |journal=Journal of Psychoactive Drugs |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=189–198 |doi=10.1080/02791072.2019.1587556 |issn=2159-9777 |pmid=30917760}}

In 2017, Wolfson founded and became the CEO of the non-profit Ketamine Research Foundation (KRF).{{Cite web |date=2016-12-02 |title=Ketamine: A Transformational Catalyst |url=https://maps.org/news/bulletin/ketamine-a-transformational-catalyst/ |access-date=2024-08-08 |website=Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies - MAPS |language=en-US}} The organization is dedicated to training, education, and research with ketamine and especially in its therapeutic format—Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) as the first legally available psychedelic medicine for prescription of a psychoactive and psychedelic psychotherapy. Its subsidiary, the Ketamine Training Center (KTC) has been the leading organization in training practitioners in Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) with, as of 2024, over nine hundred practitioners participating in its international trainings. The Ketamine Psychotherapy Associates membership organization continues the educational and collaborative basis for KAP’s development worldwide.

Wolfson has recently (2023) published  through KRF the first paper on working with adolescents and ketamine.{{Cite journal |last1=Wolfson |first1=Philip E. |last2=Andries |first2=Julane |last3=Ahlers |first3=Daniel |last4=Whippo |first4=Melissa |date=2023-03-30 |title=Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in adolescents with multiple psychiatric diagnoses |journal=Frontiers in Psychiatry |language=English |volume=14 |doi=10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1141988 |doi-access=free |pmid=37065886 |pmc=10098148 |issn=1664-0640}} In KRF, he has conducted research on the concentration of ketamine in breast milk enabling women to make a decision to use this medicine for treatment of depression and  postpartum depression with minimal disruption of the mother-child relationship.{{Cite journal |last1=Wolfson |first1=Philip |last2=Cole |first2=Rob |last3=Lynch |first3=Kara |last4=Yun |first4=Cassandra |last5=Wallach |first5=Jason |last6=Andries |first6=Julane |last7=Whippo |first7=Melissa |date=2023 |title=The Pharmacokinetics of Ketamine in the Breast Milk of Lactating Women: Quantification of Ketamine and Metabolites |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35880962/ |journal=Journal of Psychoactive Drugs |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=354–358 |doi=10.1080/02791072.2022.2101903 |issn=2159-9777 |pmid=35880962}} In 2024, publication of  a comprehensive paper on ketamine and KAP emphasized the dissociative-psychedelic effects of the medicine as primary and inseparable effects and not side effects.{{Cite journal |last1=Wolfson |first1=Phil |last2=Vaid |first2=Gita |date=2024 |title=Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, psychedelic methodologies, and the impregnable value of the subjective-a new and evolving approach |journal=Frontiers in Psychiatry |volume=15 |pages=1209419 |doi=10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1209419 |doi-access=free |issn=1664-0640 |pmid=38362026|pmc=10867319 }} His recent work for a mass audience  has focused on the value of the clinical use of ketamine and the causes and problems attendant on its misuse.{{Cite web |last=MD |first=Phil Wolfson |date=2024-05-14 |title=About Ketamine: The Full Story – A Public Discourse - Lucid News |url=https://www.lucid.news/about-ketamine-the-full-story-a-public-discourse/,%20https://www.lucid.news/about-ketamine-the-full-story-a-public-discourse/ |access-date=2024-08-08 |language=en-US}}

Wolfson has embarked on several different corporate ventures. The first was in 1988 as Founder and Director of Fiberstars, later Energy Focus, Inc (EFOI) formerly the largest developer and manufacturer of fiberoptic lighting to promote energy efficient lighting solutions. The company went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1994, with Wolfson leaving the Board of Directors in 2011.

Between 1988 and 1993, alongside Alexander Shulgin, he founded and was a director of Neurobiological Technologies, Inc, a biotechnology development corporation, that also went public on the NASDAQ exchange in 1994, and was one of the developers of what became the anti-Alzheimer drug, Namenda (memantine).{{Cite web |title=Neurobiological Technologies, Inc. Announces Extraordinary Dividend of $0.18 per Share Company also Announces Timing and Plans to Voluntarily Delist from the Nasdaq Capital Market and Initiate Dissolution Process |url=https://www.biospace.com/article/neurobiological-technologies-inc-announces-extraordinary-dividend-of-0-18-per-share-company-also-announces-timing-and-plans-to-voluntarily-delist-f/ |access-date=2023-12-11 |website=BioSpace |language=en-US}}

In 1999, Wolfson and Shulgin founded a nutraceutical company, Phytos Inc, to potentially manufacture MDMA, should it have become available legally. The company also aimed to research new plant medicines.

As part of his decades of work, Wolfson authored and was the originator of nine patents for nutraceuticals and ketamine that included an herbal smoking cessation product, and a patent for Scutellaria lateraflora-Skullcap - as a high concentration anxiolytic and sedative. Wolfson published a paper describing its scientific study in Alternative Medicine.{{Cite journal |last1=Wolfson |first1=P. |last2=Hoffmann |first2=D. L. |date=2003 |title=An investigation into the efficacy of Scutellaria lateriflora in healthy volunteers |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12652886/ |journal=Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=74–78 |issn=1078-6791 |pmid=12652886}}

Recognizing the unique potential of low dose ketamine for women’s health and well-being and the potential for unique applications of ketamine, in 2017, Wolfson founded Progressive Therapeutics Inc (PTI). With CEO Dawn McCullough, PTI has patented its products and is moving into the process of FDA approvals.

In addition to his publications, Wolfson’s work has attracted attention from the media, first in 2018 with Wired Magazine,{{Cite magazine |last=Velasquez-Manoff |first=Moises |title=Ketamine Stirs Up Hope—and Controversy—as a Depression Drug |url=https://www.wired.com/story/ketamine-stirs-up-hope-controversy-as-a-depression-drug/ |access-date=2024-08-08 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}} then the New Yorker,{{Cite magazine |last=Witt |first=Emily |date=2021-12-29 |title=Ketamine Therapy Is Going Mainstream. Are We Ready? |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/ketamine-therapy-is-going-mainstream-are-we-ready |access-date=2024-08-08 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}} and Vanity Fair.{{Cite magazine |last=Duncan |first=David Ewing |date=2022-05-30 |title=Stolen Words: COVID, Ketamine, and Me |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/05/stolen-words-covid-ketamine-and-me |access-date=2024-08-08 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}}{{Cite magazine |last=Duncan |first=David Ewing |date=2024-07-12 |title=Ketamine's Long, Strange Trip: The Cred of This Miracle Med Has Gotten Murkier and, Somehow, More Promising |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/ketamines-long-strange-trip |access-date=2024-08-08 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}} He has also contributed numerous articles to Tikkun magazine on spirituality, consciousness and psychedelics; and on secular Buddhism.{{Cite web |title=phil wolfson - Tikkun |url=https://www.tikkun.org/?s=phil+wolfson&search+submit= |access-date=2024-08-08 |website=www.tikkun.org |language=en-US}}

• Wolfson, P. 2011. Noe – A Father/Son Song of Love, Life, Illness and Death. North Atlantic Books.
• Wolfson P and Hartelius G. 2016. The Ketamine Papers. MAPS Santa Cruz.

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