Unconscious Informed Consent: A Higher Standard for True Agreement to Achieve Recovery Healing
In “Industrialized Psychiatry,” Dr. Adam O’Brien introduces a concept that challenges the very bedrock of modern medical models, legal rationale, psychological ethics, and spiritual morals: “unconscious informed consent.” This isn’t just about signing a form; it implies a deeper, more profound level of agreement that goes beyond mere legalities, encompassing a holistic, embodied understanding and willingness. Dr. O’Brien suggests that this higher standard is often violated by systemic practices and legal reasoning (developmentally 7-12 years-old), leading to a profound ethical breach. Furthermore, this work highlights principles of recovery and takes moral character clause of the professions to a more realistic and common sense level of understanding.
Traditional informed consent typically involves providing a clients or patients with information about a procedure or treatment, its risks, benefits, and alternatives, and then obtaining their voluntary agreement. It’s largely a cognitive and legalistic process. However, O’Brien’s notion of “unconscious informed consent” suggests that true agreement involves a deeper alignment, one that resonates with the body and the subconscious mind, of which his doctoral research identifies as having “unconscious consciousness” that is lived experience based on implicit memory systems and how well they have developed or not.
Recall O’Brien’s core tenet that “the body is the unconscious and memories physically become a part of us.” If this is true, then genuine consent must involve the body’s knowing, not just the mind’s intellectual assent. When a system, driven by “legal-ethics” rather than “moral-ethics,” dictates treatment or restricts access to natural healing agents without this deeper, embodied understanding, it infringes upon a more fundamental human right – the right to self-determination at a profound, unconscious level.
Dr. O’Brien implies that current practices often bypass this deeper level of consent. For example, he critiques the practice of prescribing psychiatric drugs or even ketamine for at-home use without direct, relational engagement. Suggesting that the medicine is what heals and not the states of healing they produce is a profound shift from understanding how to use psychedelics in care. Building upon his principles of condition, Dr. Adam is rewriting how psychiatry can be done because he is challenging the very foundations of psychology. He asks, “How can one send one home to take the drugs that they have prescribed and say that they care? What kind of care is that? Industrialized or individualized?” This suggests that a purely transactional approach, devoid of genuine human connection and a deep understanding of the individual’s inner landscape, cannot truly achieve “unconscious informed consent.” The individual may sign a form, but their deeper self, their “unconscious body,” may not truly agree or be prepared for the experience.
This concept challenges us to reconsider what true autonomy means in healthcare and a citizens right to choose their own free will over medical, psychological, and legal “science”. Is it enough to simply inform someone intellectually, or must we also engage with their deeper, embodied wisdom? When external systems dictate individual well-being and restrict access to natural healing agents, it not only infringes upon basic human rights but also fosters dependency, preventing individuals from achieving genuine “unconscious informed consent” in their own healing journey.
This blog invites us to explore a more profound understanding of consent. What if true agreement requires a congruence between our conscious mind and our unconscious body? Does going against our bodies wisdom produce traumas? How might our medical and psychological practices change if we strived for “unconscious informed consent” and moral-ethics ensuring that every intervention aligns not just with legal protocols, but with the deepest wisdom of the individual? O’Brien’s work pushes us to seek a higher standard of ethical practice, one that honors the full spectrum of human experience and the level of moral development required to be considered in recovery.
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References
O’Brien, A. (2023a). Addiction as Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Phenomenological Investigation of the Addictive State. International University of Graduate Studies. (Dissertation). Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2023b). Memory Reconsolidation in Psychedelics Therapy. In Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2023c). Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024a). Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024e). Path of the Wounded Healers for Thrivers: Perfectionism, Altruism, and Ambition Addictions; Re-education and training manual for Abusers, Activists, Batterers, Bullies, Enablers, Killers, Narcissists, Offenders, Parents, Perpetrators, and Warriors. Re-Education and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2025). American Made Addiction Recovery: a healer’s journey through professional recovery. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
