Cover Story · New York Magazine

The Complainers Group

March 22, 2022·53 min·4 clips

Megan says the institutional response from MAPS caused more trauma than her therapist's abuse did.

The first note is caution. Before the reporting picks up again, listeners are told the series includes sexual assault, that some names and voices have been changed, and that a hard-to-watch video about Megan Buisson, including footage from her clinical trial, is being released on New York Magazine's site. Then Lily steps back. She remembers an email from someone she respected, a person asking about psychedelic therapy without knowing Lily was working inside this story. The name makes the question land harder. The person had trained with Francoise Bourzat, described here with a dry edge, and Lily's answer comes out less like an argument than a warning. The harm is not abstract. A guest says nothing has helped the way she hoped it would, not two months alone in the woods or a trip through about eight national parks. Beauty used to reach her. Now those landscapes no longer touch the part of her that once felt connected, leaving what she calls painful deadness, not just numbness. The narrator gives that room to breathe. She stays with the fact that many people interviewed have been through severe experiences, while also noting that most do not blame the drugs themselves. That distinction matters. Some still use psychedelics on their own terms, and one voice still supports decriminalization to make access easier. Mel's logic is painfully easy to understand. She entered MDMA-assisted therapy because the clinical setting seemed to offer expertise, structure, and people with letters after their names who could finally tell her what to do. The promise is left exposed. Around her, the episode turns medical credentials into a sharper question: what happens when the room meant to help you becomes part of what you have to survive. Even the credits feel like part of the record. The closing beat names legal thanks, fact checking, Sarah Ahmed's writing on complaint, and Symposia as a watchdog partner, keeping the episode tied to accountability instead of one neat release.

As heard by us

A careful look at psychedelic therapy, trauma, and the limits of clinical certainty.

This episode opens with a sexual assault warning and settles into a hard, careful conversation about psychedelic therapy, trauma, and clinical trials.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a psychedelic story that sits with sexual assault and clinical trials, this is the one to press play on.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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