Feeling Close Under the Spell of MDMA Does Not Mean Acting with Empathy

The inner feelings of euphoria and closeness that come with the “love drug” might not actually translate into observable empathic behavior.

My memory is understandably foggy, but this looks like the kind of Dublin bar in which I consumed 3 tabs of MDMA and listened to a famous Irish American expert explain multilevel modeling. I doubt he knew why I was so warm to his statistical tables. I did not fall in love with him, his statistical tables, or the Irish lasses dancing like faeries floating on clouds in the room behind us. Maybe my set and setting for consuming the drug were not right. Photo Creator: Tambako the Jaguar Flickr

I did not tell the Irish-American psychologist who unexpectedly joined me at a front corner table that I was under the influence of ecstasy. He soon thought that he had acquired new brilliance in explaining multilevel statistical modeling to me. He was delighted that I shared his fondness for the potatoes cooked five different ways that his distant Irish relatives had served him the night before.

I kept hydrated by matching the psychologist's beer intake. Eventually, I went to the toilet. Luckily, my…