Living with guilt. Interview on stage between Garik Rober and Peter Gasser

Background of the talk Garik Rober (GR) is a physician and psychotherapist who lives in Germany. In 2009 during a not legal psychedelic group therapy that was led by GR two patients died. A third patient was severly poisoned but could leave hospital after three weeks without lasting damage. GR was sentenced to four years in prison for negligent homicide plus a lifetime ban from practicing his profession. The interview aims to reconstruct the background that led to the fatal outcome with two people death of that illegal psychedelic therapy. Then we follow the life of GR, his time in prison, meeting with the bereaved of the two victims, the life of GR after prison and the dealing with a debt that cannot be repaid in any way

Methods The Interview on stage will be enrolled in an interactive way with the possibility of the audience to raise questions that can be discussed immediately. The goal of that talk is to learn how severe mistakes can happen, what are the crucial points and what are the red flags that must be seen. The existential dimension of guilt that GR has to accept since the catastrophy that happened in 2009 is an issue that the audience can discuss. The event is neither a court case against GR nor an attempt to rehabilitate a colleague. However he deserves to be treated with respect and dignity like any human being.

Conclusion The death of two patients during a therapeutic intervention of course is a tragedy and it is not to be seen as one of the risks of psychedelic therapy. However, it happened and so it opens an opportunity to learn from it and to clearly consolidate ethical guidelines and perspectives