Psychology/Psychiatry (Concepts and Theories)

Alsadir, Nuar. Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation. Graywolf Press, 2022. ["An invigorating, continuously surprising book about the serious nature of laughter. Laughter shakes us out of our deadness. An outburst of spontaneous laughter is an eruption from the unconscious that, like political resistance, poetry, or self-revelation, expresses a provocative, impish drive to burst free from external constraints. Taking laughter’s revelatory capacity as a starting point, and rooted in Nuar Alsadir’s experience as a poet and psychoanalyst, Animal Joy seeks to recover the sensation of being present and embodied. Writing in a poetic, associative style, blending the personal with the theoretical, Alsadir ranges from her experience in clown school, Anna Karenina’s morphine addiction, Freud’s un-Freudian behaviors, marriage brokers and war brokers, to “Not Jokes,” Abu Ghraib, Frantz’s negrophobia, smut, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, laugh tracks, the problem with adjectives, and how poetry can wake us up. At the center of the book, however, is the author’s relationship with her daughters, who erupt into the text like sudden, unexpected laughter. These interventions—frank, tender, and always a challenge to the writer and her thinking—are like tiny revolutions, pointedly showing the dangers of being severed from one’s true self and hinting at ways one might be called back to it. A bold and insatiably curious prose debut, Animal Joy is an ode to spontaneity and feeling alive."]

Alter, Adam. "The Rise of Addictive Technology." Radio West (March 5, 2018) ["Marketing professor Adam Alter begins his new book by noting that Steve Jobs didn’t let his own children use an iPad, a product he invented, because he was worried they’d get addicted to it. That’s what Alter’s book is about: our increasing addiction to technology. These days, we aren’t just hooked on substances, like drugs and alcohol. We’re addicted to video games, social media, porn, email, and lots more. Alter joins us to explore the business and psychology of irresistible technologies."]

---. "Feeling Stuck? Here’s How To Achieve a Breakthrough." Big Brains (June 27, 2024) ["We've all been stuck at some point in our lives — whether we've been stuck at a job and wanting to make a career change, stuck in a location and wanting to move somewhere new, or stuck in relationships or friendships. But the method to getting “unstuck” and achieving a breakthrough might be easier than you think. Using research-backed tools, New York University's Adam Alter shares his tips for how to get unstuck in his new book, Anatomy of a Breakthrough. Alter shares success stories from some of the world's most successful people, and explains how altering your thoughts and habits could lead you on a better path to success. Alter is a professor of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business and the Robert Stansky Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellow."]

Anderson, Ellie and David Peña-Guzmán. "Comfort." Overthink #118 (December 3, 2024) ["... Ellie and David discuss all things comfortable…and uncomfortable. They talk through the conflation of comfort and luxury, modern architecture’s prioritization of comfort, and whether our need for comfort is the reason for our burning planet. With everything from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to “the comfort-industrial complex,” this episode will have you questioning what it takes for us to lead a full and happy life. Plus, in the bonus they get into the meaning of the phrase ‘too close for comfort’, alcohol as a destructive form of comfort, and the importance of attachment theory."]

Banaji, Mahzarin and Michael Rosenfled. "Radically Normal: How Gay Rights Activists Changed The Minds Of Their Opponents." Hidden Brain (April 8, 2019) ["In 1972, researchers launched a project known as the General Social Survey. The GSS asked Americans to share their opinions on a whole range of important issues, from education spending to the role of women in the workforce. In 1988, the GSS began asking Americans to share their thoughts on another topic: whether gay people should have the right to marry. That year, fewer than 12 percent of respondents said yes. Fast-forward three decades. In 2018, 68 percent of those surveyed said that gay couples should have that right."]

Barnett, Katie. "Invisible Presences: The Elusive Twin and the Empty Screen in Personal Shopper." Revenant #8 (December 2022): 47 - 63. ["In psychological and therapeutic literature, the death of a twin is considered to be particularly traumatic and devastating for the surviving sibling, theorised variously as a unique form of sorrow, a ‘halving’, and a loss akin to the death of the self. Although the death of a twin is a recurrent narrative trope in literature and, subsequently, on screen, relatively few films are preoccupied with the aftermath of the twin’s death and the grieving process undergone by the surviving twin. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, uniting film analysis with psychoanalysis, death studies and sibling psychology, this article explores one such representation of twin bereavement in Olivier Assayas’s 2016 Palme d’Or-winning film Personal Shopper. Assayas’s work frequently explores the complications of death, grief, and memory, and Personal Shopper offers a rare but compelling representation of twin bereavement in its depiction of the apparent haunting of protagonist Maureen (Kristen Stewart) by the spirit of her dead twin brother, Lewis. The article contends that through its use of mirrors, screens and reflections, the film offers a complex and thoughtful representation of grief, not least in its active refusal to offer either its protagonist or the audience a sense of closure or certainty. In doing so, the film seeks to capture not only the complexities and contradictions of grief, but the particular and under-explored experience of twin bereavement and the shattering of self that ensues from this loss."]

Belsky, Jay, et al. The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life. Harvard University Press, 2023. ["Does temperament in childhood predict adult personality? What role do parents play in shaping how a child matures? Is daycare bad—or good—for children? Does adolescent delinquency forecast a life of crime? Do genes influence success in life? Is health in adulthood shaped by childhood experiences? In search of answers to these and similar questions, four leading psychologists have spent their careers studying thousands of people, observing them as they’ve grown up and grown older. The result is unprecedented insight into what makes each of us who we are. In The Origins of You, Jay Belsky, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie Moffitt, and Richie Poulton share what they have learned about childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, about genes and parenting, and about vulnerability, resilience, and success. The evidence shows that human development is not subject to ironclad laws but instead is a matter of possibilities and probabilities—multiple forces that together determine the direction a life will take. A child’s early years do predict who they will become later in life, but they do so imperfectly. For example, genes and troubled families both play a role in violent male behavior, and, though health and heredity sometimes go hand in hand, childhood adversity and severe bullying in adolescence can affect even physical well-being in midlife. Painstaking and revelatory, the discoveries in The Origins of You promise to help schools, parents, and all people foster well-being and ameliorate or prevent developmental problems."]

Benton, Michael Dean.  "The Power of Stories." Who Are We? (February 5, 2023) ["Michael and I explore the power of stories. Michael Benton is an associate professor of humanities and film studies at Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Lexington, Ky. Narrative Psychology focuses on how we perceive the events of our lives through stories. One of the most powerful ways we can experience transformation is by changing our stories. This can be done in many ways."]

Bond, Michael. The Power of Others: Peer Pressure, Groupthink, and How the People Around Us Shape Everything We Do. One World, 2014. ["Discover how in almost every area of our lives, our behaviour is influenced far more by others than we’d like to imagine Teenage cliques, jihadist cells, army units, polar expeditions, and football hooligans – on the face of it, each of these groups might seem exceptional, but the forces that bind and drive them can affect us all. In recent decades, psychologists have uncovered how and why our innate socialness holds huge sway over how we think and act, propelling us to both high achievement and unthinking cruelty. We are beholden to our peers, even when we think we’re calling the shots. This is the power of others. In this captivating work, science writer Michael Bond investigates the latest breakthroughs in social psychology to reveal how to guard against groupthink, build better teamwork, identify shared objectives, become more ethical, and survive moments of isolation. A fascinating blend of evolutionary theory, behavourial science, and remarkable case studies, The Power of Others will teach you to truly harness your collective self."]

The Century of the Self (UK: Adam Curtis, 2002) ["To many in both business and government, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power is truly moved into the hands of the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society. How is the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interest?"]

Conti, Paul. Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic. Sounds True, 2021. ["A Journey Toward Understanding, Active Treatment, and Societal Prevention of Trauma. Imagine, if you will, a disease—one that has only subtle outward symptoms but can hijack your entire body without notice, one that transfers easily between parent and child, one that can last a lifetime if untreated. According to Dr. Paul Conti, this is exactly how society should conceptualize trauma: as an out-of-control epidemic with a potentially fatal prognosis. In Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic, Dr. Conti examines the most recent research, clinical best practices, and dozens of real-life stories to present a deeper and more urgent view of trauma. Not only does Dr. Conti explain how trauma affects the body and mind, he also demonstrates that trauma is transmissible among close family and friends, as well as across generations and within vast demographic groups. With all this in mind, Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic proposes a course of treatment for the seemingly untreatable. Here, Dr. Conti traces a step-by-step series of concrete changes that we can make both as individuals and as a society to alleviate trauma’s effects and prevent further traumatization in the future. You will discover: The different post-trauma syndromes, how they are classified, and their common symptomsAn examination of how for-profit health care systems can inhibit diagnosis and treatment of trauma. How social crises and political turmoil encourage the spread of group trauma. Methods for confronting and managing your fears as they arise in the moment. How trauma disrupts mental processes such as memory, emotional regulation, and logical decision-making. The argument for a renewed humanist social commitment to mental health and wellness. It’s only when we understand how a disease spreads and is sustained that we are able to create its ultimate cure. With Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic, Dr. Conti reveals that what we once considered a lifelong, unbeatable mental illness is both treatable and preventable."]

Conti, Paul and Andrew Huberman. "How to Improve Your Mental Health." The Huberman Lab (September 2023) ["This is episode 2 of a 4-part special series on mental health with Dr. Paul Conti, M.D., a Stanford and Harvard-trained psychiatrist currently running a clinical practice, the Pacific Premiere Group. Dr. Conti explains specific tools for how to overcome life’s challenges using a framework of self-inquiry that explores all the key elements of self, including defense mechanisms, behaviors, self-awareness and attention. We also discuss our internal driving forces, how to align them and ultimately, how to cultivate a powerful “generative drive” of positive, aspirational pursuits. Dr. Conti also explains how to adjust your internal narratives, reduce self-limiting concepts, overcome intrusive thoughts, and how certain defense mechanisms, such as “acting out” or narcissism, show up in ourselves and others. The next episode in this special series explores how to build healthy relationships with others."]

---. "Therapy, Treating Trauma & Other Life Challenges." The Huberman Lab (June 5, 2022) ["My guest this episode is Dr. Paul Conti, M.D., a psychiatrist and expert in treating trauma, personality disorders and psychiatric illnesses and challenges of various kinds. Dr. Conti earned his MD at Stanford and did his residency at Harvard Medical School. He now runs the Pacific Premiere Group—a clinical practice helping people heal and grow from trauma and other life challenges. We discuss trauma: what it is and its far-reaching effects on the mind and body, as well as the best treatment approaches for trauma. We also explore how to choose a therapist and how to get the most out of therapy, as well as how to do self-directed therapy. We discuss the positive and negative effects of antidepressants, ADHD medications, alcohol, cannabis, and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics (e.g., psilocybin and LSD), ketamine and MDMA. This episode is must listen for anyone seeking or already doing therapy, processing trauma, and/or considering psychoactive medication. Both patients and practitioners ought to benefit from the information."]

 ---. "Tools and Protocols for Mental Health." The Huberman Lab (September 27, 2023) ["This is episode 4 of a 4-part special series on mental health with Stanford and Harvard-trained psychiatrist Dr. Paul Conti, M.D. Dr. Conti explains what true self-care is and how our mental health benefits from specific self-care and introspection practices — much in the same way that our physical health benefits from certain exercise and nutrition habits. He describes how the foundation of mental health is an understanding of one’s own mind and the specific questions to ask in order to explore the conscious and unconscious parts of ourselves. He describes how this process can be done either on our own, through journaling, meditation and structured thought, or in therapy with the help of a licensed professional. He also explains how unprocessed trauma can short-circuit the process and how to prevent that, and the role of friendships and other relational support systems in the journey of self-exploration for mental health. People of all ages and those with and without self-introspection and therapy experience ought to benefit from the information in this episode."]

Coombs, Wayne. "Analysis: The Pharmaceutical Colonization of Appalachia." The Daily Yonder (February 7, 2018) ["To fight the opioid epidemic, first we need to identify the enemy. Research on the theory of historical trauma – affecting entire populations and regions – could point us toward more effective treatment."]

Crandall, Chris, Erin Kearns and Muniba Saleem. "The Weight of Our Words." Hidden Brain (April 13, 2018) ["In 2014, two shooting sprees occurred six months apart in busy American cities. They had uncanny similarities: in both events, multiple people were shot and killed, including two police officers. Both ended with suicides, and both involved ominous, anti-government messages left on social media. But one crime received nearly five times as much coverage as the other one. The key difference? One shooter, Ishmael Brinsley, was Muslim, and the other shooters, a white supremacist couple named Jerad and Amanda Miller, were not."]

Cullors, Patrisse and Ken Rosenberg. "Bedlam: Film Shows How Decades of Healthcare Underfunding Made Jails 'De Facto Mental Asylums.'" Democracy Now (December 27, 2019) ["Are prisons and jails America’s “new asylums”? A new documentary looks at how a disproportionate number of underserved people facing mental health challenges have been swept into the criminal justice system, where they lack adequate treatment. Nearly 15% of men and more than 30% of women in jails have a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder. For many of them, jail is their first point of entry into mental health treatment. The documentary “Bedlam” was filmed over five years in Los Angeles County’s overwhelmed and vastly under-resourced Emergency Psychiatry Services, a jail warehousing thousands of psychiatric patients, and the homes — and homeless encampments — of people who are living with severe mental illness. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will air on PBS “Independent Lens” this April. The film features many people, including Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who share their personal experiences with family members’ chronic psychiatric conditions that have pushed them into the path of police officers, ER doctors and nurses, lawyers and prison guards. We speak with Cullors, who shares her experience with seeking help for her brother Monte, who has lived with schizoaffective disorder since he was a teenager, and director Ken Rosenberg, an addiction psychiatrist affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City whose own sister struggled with schizophrenia."]

Devlin, Kate. "Love, Sex and Robots." Hidden Brain (March 11, 2019) ["This week on Hidden Brain, we reflect on the narrowing gap between humans and machines. What are the possibilities for deep, intimate relationships with artificial lovers? And does it help if those lovers are beautifully designed to look like human beings and have the faint glow of empathy and intelligence?"]

Ehrlich, Robert. "Winnicott’s Idea Of The False Self: Theory as Autobiography." Journal of the American Psychoanalytical Association 69.1 (February 2021) ["One of the most important concepts developed by D. W. Winnicott was his idea of the false self. In the course of his work, he was often preoccupied with the need to maintain a sense of psychological vitality, which could be threatened in various ways. Threats occur throughout the life cycle as parents, siblings, friends, teachers, and other people impact the individual and contribute to the creation of the inner world of fantasy, which is also self-generated. These elements can work together or separately to undermine one’s sense of vitality by the pressure to comply with a variety of demands, which can give rise to a false self. Winnicott’s principal method of exploring this issue was through his clinical work, which was informed by personal struggles instrumental in shaping his thinking about the concept."]

Engel, Christoph and Ralph Hertwig, eds. Deliberate Ignorance: Choosing Not to Know. MIT Press, 2021. ["Psychologists, economists, historians, computer scientists, sociologists, philosophers, and legal scholars explore the conscious choice not to seek information. The history of intellectual thought abounds with claims that knowledge is valued and sought, yet individuals and groups often choose not to know. We call the conscious choice not to seek or use knowledge (or information) deliberate ignorance. When is this a virtue, when is it a vice, and what can be learned from formally modeling the underlying motives? On which normative grounds can it be judged? Which institutional interventions can promote or prevent it? In this book, psychologists, economists, historians, computer scientists, sociologists, philosophers, and legal scholars explore the scope of deliberate ignorance."]

Fine, Cordelia. Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences. Icon Books, 2010. ["It’s the twenty-first century, and although we tried to rear unisex children—boys who play with dolls and girls who like trucks—we failed. Even though the glass ceiling is cracked, most women stay comfortably beneath it. And everywhere we hear about vitally important “hardwired” differences between male and female brains. The neuroscience that we read about in magazines, newspaper articles, books, and sometimes even scientific journals increasingly tells a tale of two brains, and the result is more often than not a validation of the status quo. Women, it seems, are just too intuitive for math; men too focused for housework. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, Cordelia Fine debunks the myth of hardwired differences between men’s and women’s brains, unraveling the evidence behind such claims as men’s brains aren’t wired for empathy and women’s brains aren’t made to fix cars. She then goes one step further, offering a very different explanation of the dissimilarities between men’s and women’s behavior. Instead of a “male brain” and a “female brain,” Fine gives us a glimpse of plastic, mutable minds that are continuously influenced by cultural assumptions about gender. Passionately argued and unfailingly astute, Delusions of Gender provides us with a much-needed corrective to the belief that men’s and women’s brains are intrinsically different—a belief that, as Fine shows with insight and humor, all too often works to the detriment of ourselves and our society."]

Fisher, Carl Erik. The Urge: Our History of Addiction. Penguin, 2022. ["Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and The Boston Globe. An authoritative, illuminating, and deeply humane history of addiction—a phenomenon that remains baffling and deeply misunderstood despite having touched countless lives—by an addiction psychiatrist striving to understand his own family and himself. Even after a decades-long opioid overdose crisis, intense controversy still rages over the fundamental nature of addiction and the best way to treat it. With uncommon empathy and erudition, Carl Erik Fisher draws on his own experience as a clinician, researcher, and alcoholic in recovery as he traces the history of a phenomenon that, centuries on, we hardly appear closer to understanding—let alone addressing effectively. As a psychiatrist-in-training fresh from medical school, Fisher was soon face-to-face with his own addiction crisis, one that nearly cost him everything. Desperate to make sense of the condition that had plagued his family for generations, he turned to the history of addiction, learning that the current quagmire is only the latest iteration of a centuries-old story: humans have struggled to define, treat, and control addictive behavior for most of recorded history, including well before the advent of modern science and medicine. A rich, sweeping account that probes not only medicine and science but also literature, religion, philosophy, and public policy, The Urge illuminates the extent to which the story of addiction has persistently reflected broader questions of what it means to be human and care for one another. Fisher introduces us to the people who have endeavored to address this complex condition through the ages: physicians and politicians, activists and artists, researchers and writers, and of course the legions of people who have struggled with their own addictions. He also examines the treatments and strategies that have produced hope and relief for many people with addiction, himself included. Only by reckoning with our history of addiction, he argues—our successes and our failures—can we light the way forward for those whose lives remain threatened by its hold. The Urge is at once an eye-opening history of ideas, a riveting personal story of addiction and recovery, and a clinician’s urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced, and compassionate view of one of society’s most intractable challenges."]

Ford, Phil and J.F. Martel. "Does Consciousness Exist, Part One." and "Does Consciousness Exist, Part Two." Weird Studies #17 & #18 (June 6 & June 13, 2018) ["In this first part of their discussion of William James' classic essay in radical empiricism, "Does 'Consciousness' Exist?", Phil and JF talk about the various ways we use the slippery C-word in contemporary culture. The episode touches on the political charge of the concept of consciousness, the unholy marriage of materialism and idealism ("Kant is the ultimate hipster"), the role of consciousness in the workings of the weird -- basically, anything but the essay in question. That will come in part two." & "JF and Phil finally get down to brass tacks with William James's essay 'Does Consciousness Exist?' At the heart of this essay is the concept of what James calls 'pure experience,' the basic stuff of everything, only it isn't a stuff, but an irreducible multiplicity of everything that exists -- thoughts as well as things. We're used to thinking that thoughts and things belong to fundamentally different orders of being, but what if thoughts are things, too? For one thing, psychical phenomena (a great interest of James's) suddenly become a good deal more plausible. And the imaginal realm, where art and magic make their home, becomes a sovereign domain."]

Frank, Justin. "Dr. Justin Frank Explains the Real Reason that Donald Trump Hates the Ukraine Scandal Whistleblower." The Chauncey DeVega Show #254 (October 2, 2019) ["Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and a physician with more than 40 years of experience in psychoanalysis. He is the author of the bestselling books Bush on the Couch and Obama on the Couch. His newest book is Trump on the Couch. Dr. Frank's work has appeared in Time magazine and the Daily Beast and he has appeared as an expert commentator and guest on MSNBC, CNN, PBS and other outlets. Dr. Justin Frank explains what does Donald Trump's behavior in response to the Ukraine Scandal and his likely impeachment reveal about the president's core character and psyche? He also explores if there are any limits on what Donald Trump could potentially do in response to his feeling threatened and afraid by the House Democrats' impeachment investigation and the possibility that -- however slim -- he may be removed from office by the United States Senate? And what are the real reasons why Donald Trump hates and wants to destroy the Ukraine whistleblower?"]

Fromm, Erich. "The Authoritarian Personality." (1957: Translated by Florian Nange)

Fry, Douglas P. "Peace in Our Time: Steven Pinker offers a curiously foreshortened account of humanity's irenic urges." Bookforum (December/January 2012)

Gillepsie, Alex, Philip Horne and Sandra Jovchelovitch. "Literary Festival 2014: More Tales from the Two James(es)." The London School of Economics and Political Science (February 23, 2014) ["... readings from the work of William and Henry James to explore the links between psychology and fiction."]

Gino, Francesca. "You 2.0: Rebel with a Cause." Hidden Brain (August 9, 2019) ["This week, we'll follow Gino on her mission to understand the minds of successful rule breakers. What are their secrets? And how can we discover our own rebel talent? "I think we really need to shift our thinking," says Gino. "Rebels are people who break rules that should be broken. They break rules that hold them and others back, and their way of rule breaking is constructive rather than destructive. It creates positive change.""]

Gladwell, Malcolm. "The Big Man Can't Shoot." Revisionist History 1.3 (ND) ["“The Big Man Can’t Shoot” is a meditation on the puzzle of why smart people do dumb things—why excellence is such a difficult and elusive goal, even for the best-intentioned."]

---. "Saigon, 1965." Revisionist History 1.2 (ND) ["In the early 1960s, the Pentagon set up a top-secret research project in an old villa in downtown Saigon. The task? To interview captured North Vietnamese soldiers and guerrillas in order to measure their morale: Was the relentless U.S. bombing pushing them to the brink of capitulation? Saigon, 1965 is the story of three people who got caught up in that effort: a young Vietnamese woman, a refugee from Nazi Germany, and a brilliant Russian émigré. All saw the same things. All reached different conclusions. The Pentagon effort, run by the Rand Corporation, was one of the most ambitious studies of enemy combatants ever conducted—and no one could agree on what it meant."]

Grandin, Greg. "On American Expansion, Part One: The Myth of the Frontier." On the Media (March 29, 2019) ["What are the stories that America has told about itself? In the first of a three-part series on the notion of American Exceptionalism, Brooke speaks with historian Greg Grandin about America's founding narrative: the country's expansion westward. In his new book, The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, Grandin traces how the idea of endless, unstoppable growth has influenced US policy and psychology — and how President Trump’s call for a barrier at the southern border upends the idea of America as a country of boundless possibility."]

Grob, Charles. "Psychedeliology (HALLUCINOGENS) Part 1." Ologies (July 11, 2024) ["Magic mushrooms, LSD, ayahuasca ceremonies, DMT, ketamine: this episode is a grab bag of trippy facts. Renowned psychiatry professor and psychedelics researcher Dr. Charles Grob of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center sits down to talk about how much LSD is too much LSD, what juices are squirting in the brain when you're tripping out, who should NOT take psychedelics, talking to dead people, serendipitous libraries, late night phone calls, antidepressants and mushrooms, the murky history of psychedelic research, and future paths of study that may help the world. Next week, wall-to-wall listener questions and some tales from your internet dad’s own journey."]

Haidt, Jonathan. "The Coddling of the American Mind, How to Become Intellectually Antifragile, and How to Lose Anger by Studying Morality." The Tim Ferris Show (December 21, 2022) ["Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Jonathan received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. His research examines the intuitive foundations of morality and how morality varies across cultural and political divisions. He is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis and the New York Times bestsellers The Righteous Mind and The Coddling of the American Mind (with Greg Lukianoff)."]

---. "The Economic Costs of a Phone-Based Childhood." Capitalisn't (July 18, 2024) ["In one of this year's bestselling books, "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing An Epidemic of Mental Illness," New York University social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that today's childhoods spent under the influence of smartphones and overprotective parenting has led to the reported explosion in cases of teenage anxiety and depression. He calls this process a "three-act play": the diminishment of trust in our communities, the loss of a play-based childhood, and the arrival of a hyper-connected world. Haidt also believes the problem is solvable. On this episode of Capitalisn't, he joins Bethany and Luigi to discuss parenting, learning, adolescence, and in an age where Congress won't act on regulation, his four proposed solutions to break social media's "collective action trap" on children. But are his solutions feasible? How do we weigh their costs, benefits, limitations, risks, and the roadblocks to their implementation? What are the consequences of an anxious generation for our economy — and what can we really do about it?"]

---. "Escaping the Matrix." Hidden Brain (March 11, 2024) ["A little more than a decade ago, researchers began tracking an alarming trend: a dramatic uptick in anxiety and depression among young Americans. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt, like many other researchers, says the increase is related to our use of social media and devices. But he believes it’s also deeper than that — connected to our deepest moral beliefs and how they shape the way we view the world. He says there are simple steps we can take to improve the mental health of kids growing up in the smartphone era." The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, by Jonathan Haidt, 2024. The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, 2018. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt, 2013. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, by Jonathan Haidt, 2006.]

---. "How Do Conservatives and Liberals See the World?" Moyers & Company (June 1, 2012)

---. "How Smartphones & Social Media Impact Mental Health & the Realistic Solutions." The Huberman Lab (June 10, 2024) ["In this episode, my guest is Dr. Jonathan Haidt, PhD, professor of social psychology at New York University and bestselling author on how technology and culture impact the psychology and health of kids, teens, and adults. We discuss the dramatic rise of suicide, depression, and anxiety as a result of replacing a play-based childhood with smartphones, social media, and video games. He explains how a screen-filled childhood leads to challenges in psychological development that negatively impact learning, resilience, identity, cooperation, and conflict resolution — all of which are crucial skills for future adult relationships and career success. We also discuss how phones and social media impact boys and girls differently and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of how smartphones alter basic brain plasticity and function. Dr. Haidt explains his four recommendations for healthier smartphone use in kids, and we discuss how to restore childhood independence and play in the current generation. This is an important topic for everyone, young or old, parents and teachers, students and families, to be aware of in order to understand the potential mental health toll of smartphone use and to apply tools to foster skill-building and reestablish healthy norms for our kids."]

---. "Social Media Messed Up Our Kids. Now It Is Making Us Ungovernable." NOEMA (June 13, 2024) ["In a conversation with Noema editor-in-chief Nathan Gardels, the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt discusses the impact of social media on truth in politics, the mental health crisis of today’s youth, and what to do about it."]

Harris, Lasana T. Invisible Mind: Flexible Social Cognition and Dehumanization. MIT Press, 2017. ["An interdisciplinary view of the evolution and consequences of flexible social cognition—the capacity to withhold the inference of mental states to other people. In Invisible Mind, Lasana Harris takes a social neuroscience approach to explaining the worst of human behavior. How can a person take part in racially motivated violence and then tenderly cradle a baby or lovingly pet a puppy? Harris argues that our social cognition—the ability to infer the mental states of another agent—is flexible. That is, we can either engage or withhold social cognition. If we withhold social cognition, we dehumanize the other person. Integrating theory from a range of disciplines—social, developmental, and cognitive psychology, evolutionary anthropology, philosophy, economics, and law—with neuroscience data, Harris explores how and why we engage or withhold social cognition. He examines research in these different disciplines and describes biological processes that underlie flexible social cognition, including brain, genetic, hormonal, and physiological mechanisms. After laying out the philosophical and theoretical terrain, Harris explores examples of social cognitive ability in nonhumans and explains the evolutionary staying power of this trait. He addresses two motives for social cognition—prediction and explanation—and reviews cases of anthropomorphism (extending social cognition to entities without mental states) and dehumanization (withholding it from people with mental states). He discusses the relation of social cognition to the human/nonhuman distinction and to the evolution of sociality. He considers the importance of social context and, finally, he speculates about the implications of flexible social cognition in such arenas for human interaction as athletic competition and international disputes."]

Heath, Roderick. "A Dangerous Method (2011)." Ferdy on Films (December 18, 2011)

Hickey, Philip. "Rebranding Psychiatry." Mad in America (November 28, 2017) ["The essence of modern marketing is to create anxiety in the “targets.” The anxiety is delivered in carefully sculpted messages, like: your kitchen is old and drab; your car lacks style; your hair is too grey; your skin is too dry; etc., etc. The marketer then delivers the great lie: buy our product and, not only will your problems go away, you’ll get a stylish car, a great lifestyle, and an enchanting partner to boot. Of course it’s not true, and a great many people in our culture spend their entire lives on this purchasing treadmill, futilely chasing the promises implied in the glossy ads. If there is any ethical role for a helping profession in this area, it is, I suggest, to offer training to people of all ages in how to resist this kind of tawdry huckstering, not to use it to promote their own agenda. But psychiatry has never been big on ethics."]

Hollis, James. "How to Find Your True Purpose & Create Your Best Life." Huberman Lab (May 13, 2024) ["In this episode, my guest is Dr. James Hollis, Ph.D., a Jungian psychoanalyst, renowned educator and author on finding and pursuing one’s unique purpose. Dr. Hollis is also an expert in the psychology of relationships and healing from trauma. We discuss how early family dynamics and social context create patterns of both adaptive and maladaptive behavior and internal narratives that, when examined, lead to better choices and a deeply fulfilling existence. We discuss discovering your unique self-identity and purpose through specific practices of reflection, meditation and conversations with others. We also discuss self-perception and the evolution of roles within marriages, parent-child relationships, and work. Throughout the episode, Dr. Hollis provides both basic knowledge and practical tools to help us assess ourselves and better understand who we are and what we really want in careers, relationships of all kinds, and society."]

"How Monsters are Made." Hidden Brain (December 2, 2024) ["What makes ordinary people do evil things? It was a question that long fascinated the psychologist Philip Zimbardo, who died in October. Zimbardo was best known for the controversial Stanford prison experiment, in which he created a simulated prison in the basement of a university building and recruited volunteers to act as prisoners and guards. This week, we explore how Zimbardo came to create one of psychology’s most notorious experiments – and inadvertently became the poster child for the human weaknesses he was trying to study. "]

Huberman, Andrew and Becky Kennedy. "Protocols for Excellent Parenting & Improving Relationships of All Kinds." The Huberman Lab (February 26, 2024) ["In this episode, my guest is Dr. Becky Kennedy, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, bestselling author, and founder of Good Inside, an education platform for parents and parents-to-be. We discuss actionable protocols for raising resilient, emotionally healthy kids and effective alternatives to typical forms of reward and punishment that instead teach children valuable skills and strengthen the parent-child bond. These protocols also apply to other types of relationships: professional, romantic, friendships, siblings, etc. We explain how to respond to emotional outbursts, rudeness, and entitlement, repair fractured relationships, build self-confidence, and improve interpersonal connections with empathy while maintaining healthy boundaries. We also discuss how to effectively communicate with children and adults with ADHD, anxiety, learning challenges, or with “deeply feeling” individuals. The conversation is broadly applicable to all types of social interactions and bonds. By the end of the episode, you will have earned simple yet powerful tools to build healthy relationships with kids, teens, adults, and oneself."]

Huberman, Andrew and Matthew Walker. "Protocols to Improve Sleep." The Huberman Lab (April 10, 2024) ["This is episode 2 of a 6-part special series on sleep with Dr. Matthew Walker, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience and psychology and founder of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley. We discuss basic and advanced tools for improving sleep and explain how sleep quality is affected by temperature, light and dark, caffeine, alcohol, cannabis, nutrition, meal timing, and different medications. Dr. Walker also provides strategies for coping with a poor night of sleep, wind-down routines, technology in the bedroom, insomnia, visualizations, and building sleep “confidence.” We also discuss the current status of sleep research for developing advanced techniques to optimize sleep. This episode provides numerous zero-cost behavioral protocols for improving sleep quality and restorative power, which can benefit daytime mood, energy, performance, and overall health."]

Hudis, Peter. "Frantz Fanon, The Philosopher of the Barricades." Against the Grain (October 9, 2017) ["Peter Hudis discusses the Martiniquan philosopher, psychiatrist, and revolutionary Frantz Fanon, best known for his books The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks."]

Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century (USA: Scott Noble, 2010: 119 mins) ["Human Resources — Social Engineering in the 20th Century is about the rise of mechanistic philosophy and the exploitation of human beings under modern hierarchical systems. The film captures how humans are regarded as a resource by corporations—something to be exploited for pecuniary gain—by following the history of psychological experiments in behaviour modification, conditioning and mind control; applying the outcomes to modern day establishment experiments such as institutionalised education, military training, and social engineering by way of things like television…"]

The Icarus Project ["The Icarus Project envisions a new culture and language that resonates with our actual experiences of 'mental illness' rather than trying to fit our lives into a conventional framework. We are a network of people living with and/or affected by experiences that are commonly diagnosed and labeled as psychiatric conditions. We believe these experiences are mad gifts needing cultivation and care, rather than diseases or disorders. By joining together as individuals and as a community, the intertwined threads of madness, creativity, and collaboration can inspire hope and transformation in an oppressive and damaged world. Participation in The Icarus Project helps us overcome alienation and tap into the true potential that lies between brilliance and madness. The Icarus Project is a collaborative, participatory adventure fueled by inspiration and mutual aid. We bring the Icarus vision to reality through an Icarus national staff collective and a grassroots network of autonomous local support groups and Campus Icarus groups across the US and beyond."]

Jindia, Shilpa. "Psychologists Vote Not to Return to Guantanamo Amid Heated Debate Over Torture Legacy." The Intercept (August 9, 2018)

Jones, Grant. "Music, Meditation, and Healing." Mind & Life (November 15, 2023) ["Wendy speaks with musician, contemplative, researcher, and activist Grant Jones. Grant is working to develop and implement contemplative and liberatory tools for underserved populations."]

Jones. Josh. "Carl Jung Offers an Introduction to His Psychological Thought in a 3‑Hour Interview (1957)." Open Culture (August 1, 2024) ["... Jung describes the persona in plain terms and with everyday examples as a fictional self 'partially dictated by society and partially dictated by the expectations or the wishes one nurses oneself.' The less we’re consciously aware of our public selves as performances in these terms, the more we’re prone, Jung says, to neuroses, as the pressure of our 'shadow,' exerts itself. Jung and Evans’ discussion of persona only grazes the surface of their wide-ranging conversation about the unconscious and the many ways to access it. Throughout, Jung’s examples are clear and his explanations lucid. Above, you can see a transcribed video of the same interviews."]

Keltner, Dacher. "The Thrilling New Science of Awe." On Being (February 2, 2023) ["One of the most fascinating developments of our time is that human qualities we have understood in terms of virtue — experiences we’ve called spiritual — are now being taken seriously by science as intelligence — as elements of human wholeness. Dacher Keltner and his Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley have been pivotal in this emergence. From the earliest years of his career, he investigated how emotions are coded in the muscles of our faces, and how they serve as “moral sensory systems.” He was called on as Emojis evolved; he consulted on Pete Docter’s groundbreaking movie Inside Out. All of this, as Dacher sees it now, led him deeper and deeper into investigating the primary experience of awe in human life — moments when we have a sense of wonder, an experience of mystery, that transcends our understanding. These, it turns out, are as common in human life globally as they are measurably health-giving and immunity-boosting. They bring us together with others, again and again. They bring our nervous system and heartbeat and breath into sync — and even into sync with other bodies around us. Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and founding director of the Greater Good Science Center. He hosts the podcast The Science of Happiness. His latest book is Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life."]

Keyes, Corey. "Why You Feel Empty." Hidden Brain (June 10, 2024) ["Have you ever had an unexplainable feeling of emptiness? Life seems perfect – and yet – something is missing. This week, sociologist Corey Keyes helps us understand where feelings of emptiness come from, how to navigate them and why they’re more common than we might assume." Features a discussion of his 2024 book Languishing: How to Feel Alive Again in a World That Wears Us Down.]

Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. NY: Metropolitan Books, 2007.

Knafo, Danielle. "The New Sexual Landscape and Contemporary Psychoanalysis (Confer Books, 2020)." New Books in Psychoanalysis (August 17, 2020) ["The sexual landscape has changed dramatically in the past few decades, with the meaning of gender and sexuality now being parsed within the realms of gender fluidity, nonheteronormative sexuality, BDSM, and polyamory. The sea change in sexual attitudes has also made room for the mainstreaming of internet pornography and the use of virtual reality for sexual pleasure – and the tech gurus have not even scratched the surface when it comes to mining the possibilities of alternative realities. In The New Sexual Landscape and Contemporary Psychoanalysis (Confer Books, 2020), Danielle Knafo and Rocco Lo Bosco survey modern sex culture and suggests ways psychoanalysis can update its theories and practice to meet the novel needs of today’s generations; at the same time, paying special attention to technology, which is augmenting and expanding sexual and gender possibilities. The authors consider how sexuality and bonding in this brave new world are best suited to meet our psychoanalytic needs."]

Kuper, Terry. "Punishment in Solitary." Against the Grain (October 10, 2017) ["According to Terry Kupers, a culture of punishment and impunity pervades solitary confinement facilities around the U.S. Because many inmates in solitary suffer from serious mental illness, they can respond to escalating punishments in ways that invite more — and more brutal — punitive measures. Kupers discusses what can be done to promote, rather than undermine, inmates’ emotional stability and prospects for rehabilitation."]

Laing, Olivia. " Wilhelm Reich: the strange, prescient sexologist who sought to set us free."  The Guardian (April 17, 2021) ["He believed orgasms could be a healing force and coined the term ‘sexual revolution’. Reich’s understanding of the body is vital in our age of protests and patriarchy, writes Olivia Laing."] 

Lamb, Robert and Christian Sager. "Laughing During Horror Movies." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (October 3, 2017) ["Have you ever heard inappropriate laughter during a horror movie? For that matter, are you the guilty party? Join Robert and Christian as they explore our curious reactions to frightful cinema and how horror and comedy converge in the human mind."]

---. "Six Ghost Stories." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (October 10, 2017) ["Human superstition provides us with an overwhelming wealth of ghost stories, each an unreal creation that reveals something crucial about culture, history and psychology. In this episode of the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast, Robert and Christian explore six ghost stories from around the world and discuss what they reveal about the (living) human experience."]

Lamb, Robert and Joe McCormick. "Bicameralism, Part 1: The Voice of God." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (September 26, 2017) ["In 1976, psychologist Julian Jaynes presented the world with a stunning new take on the history of human consciousness. His book “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind” hypothesized that ancient humans heard hallucinated voices in place of conscious thought, and presented archaeological, literary, historical and religious evidence to support this highly controversial view. Join Robert and Joe as they dissect bicameralism and discuss the evidence, the criticisms and more in this two-parter."]

---. "Bicameralism, Part 2: The Silent Pantheon." Stuff To Blow Your Mind (September 28, 2017)

Langer, Ellen. "Is Mindfulness the Secret to Health?" Big Brains (July 11, 2024) ["Can you heal faster just by tricking your brain? Could you lose weight with only a change of mindset? Could you think yourself into being younger? If you think the answer to all these questions is no, you haven’t read the research from renowned Harvard University psychologist Ellen Langer."]

Levine, Bruce E. "How Ayn Rand Seduced Generations of Young Men and Helped Make the U.S. Into a Selfish, Greedy Nation." AlterNet (December 15, 2011)

---. "Psychiatry’s Oppression of Young Anarchists — and the Underground Resistance." Mad in America (June 16, 2013)

---. "Toward a Healthy Society." Equal Time for Freethought (June 4, 2011)

Levine, Judith and Erica Meiners. "Uncivil Committment: A gulag of prisons posing as hospitals." N+1 #37 (Spring 2020)

Lifton, Robert Jay. "The Assault on Reality." Dissent (April 10, 2018) ["Essential to understanding Trump is his attempt to subject the public to his own solipsistic reality—and thereby destroy our shared basis for democracy."]

Lifton, Robert Jay. "Malignant Normality." Dissent (Spring 2017)  ["Extreme ideologues do much to create a malignant normality, which comes to pervade most institutions, including medical ones. Then ordinary people who work in those institutions adhere to that normality, often aided by bits and pieces of the extreme ideology. The prevailing normality can be decisive because it excludes alternatives and provides strong pressures for destructive behavior."]

Mander, Jerry. "Privatization of Consciousness." Monthly Review (October 2012) ["Is advertising legal? Most people agree that it is an uninvited intrusion into our lives and our minds, an invasion of privacy. But the fact that we can be aware of this without being furious, and that we do little to change the situation, is a good measure of our level of submission. There is a power relationship in advertising that is rarely, if ever, looked at, and yet it is a profoundly corrupt one. Some speak; others listen."]

Mastroianni, Adam. "The Illusion of Moral Decline." Big Brains (November 21, 2024) ["Adam Mastroianni wondered if people are really becoming less moral in today's world, so he set out to find an answer, and published his findings in the journal Nature, “The Illusion of Moral Decline.” While the title may be a giveaway for his findings, he asks: If people are becoming less moral, why do we all feel the same way—and what can we do to shake this “illusion?”]

Maté, Gabor.  "The Myth of Normal," Healing in a Toxic Culture & How Capitalism Fuels Addiction." Democracy Now (Posted on Youtube: November 24, 2022) ["In an extended interview, acclaimed physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté discusses his new book, "The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture." "The very values of a society are traumatizing for a lot of people," says Maté, who argues in his book that "psychological trauma, woundedness, underlies much of what we call disease." He says healing requires a reconnection between the mind and the body, which can be achieved through cultivating a sense of community, meaning, belonging and purpose. Maté also discusses how the healthcare system has harmfully promoted the "mechanization of birth," how the lack of social services for parents has led to "a massive abandonment of infants," and how capitalism has fueled addiction and the rise of youth suicide rates."]

Mishra, Pankaj. "Jordan Peterson & Fascist Mysticism." NYR Daily (March 19, 2018)

Mitchell, W.J.T. "The Trolls of Academe: Making Safe Spaces into Brave Spaces." Los Angeles Review of Books (January 5, 2018) [ Response by Horowitz with a rejoinder by Mitchell ]

Mullainathan, Sendhil and Eldar Shafir. "The Scarcity Trap: Why We Keep Digging When We're Stuck In A Hole." Hidden Brain (April 2, 2018)

O'Hehir, Andrew. "'I was just following orders': Why are we so eager to obey authority, whether the boss, the TSA or the president? A new movie has some answers." Salon (August 19, 2012)

Otto, Florian, et al. "The Cassandra Curse: Why We Heed Some Warnings, And Ignore Others." Hidden Brain (September 17, 2018) ["After a disaster happens, we want to know, could something have been done to avoid it? Did anyone see this coming? Many times, the answer is yes. There was a person — or many people — who spotted a looming crisis and tried to warn those in power. So why didn't the warnings lead to action? This week on Hidden Brain, we look into the psychology of warnings. We'll turn to an unusual source — an ancient myth about the cursed prophet Cassandra — to understand why some warnings fail. We'll travel 40 feet below the ground to talk to a modern-day Cassandra, and we'll speak with a government official who managed to get his warnings heard. There's also a gory (and fictional) murder plot, and even some ABBA."]

Perel, Esther. "The Erotic is an Antidote to Death." On Being (July 11, 2019) ["Therapist Esther Perel has changed our discourse about sexuality and coupledom with her TED talks, books, and singular podcast, Where Should We Begin?, in which listeners are invited into emotionally raw therapy sessions she conducts with couples she’s never met before. For Perel, eroticism is a key ingredient to life — and it’s more than just a description of sexuality. “It is about how people connect to this quality of aliveness, of vibrancy, of vitality, of renewal,” she says. “It is actually a spiritual, mystical experience of life.”"]

Pink, Dan. "Drive." RSAnimate (October 18, 2010)

Pizarro, Dave, et al. "Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Part One)." Philosophize This (November 6, 2017) ["Do difficult situations make good people act badly? Are there really "good" and "bad" people, or are we all about the same, but put in different situations? Situationism is supported by Milgram's experiment, where most subjects could be easily pressured into delivering shocks to an innocent person (really an actor… punked!). A more immersive example was provided by The Stanford Prison Experiment, where students took on the roles of guard and prisoner, and quickly became sadistic and passive respectively. John Doris argues that situationism is a direct attack on virtue ethics, that really there is no such thing as a virtue like "bravery" or "generosity" that cuts across all sorts of situations. While there are of course consistent personality traits, these don't map against the virtues as depicted by Aristotle and our common cultural notions. Rather, they're more context-dependent, specific to certain types of situations."]

---. "Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Part Two)." Philosophize This (November 13, 2017) ["Continuing with Dave Pizarro on articles by Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo, and John Doris about situationism, which entails that people's level of morality will vary by situation, as opposed to virtue ethics, which posits that how people will act in a novel situation will be determined by the quality of their character. We get into Doris's article, "Persons, Situations, and Virtue Ethics" (1998), where he argues against the traditional idea that we have virtues like "honesty." Instead, these traits are more situation-specific, so even someone who doesn't cheat on his or her taxes or spouse might well still steal candy. Doris sites a 1975 study by Levin and Isen where people who found a (planted) dime in a phone booth were much more likely to then help someone who dropped some papers as the subject was leaving the booth. Does this really show that helpfulness isn't a stable virtue in people, or is something else going on here and in Milgram's experiment? Does situationism excuse bad behavior? Would any one of us do just what most the citizens of Germany did during the Nazi regime if we were in that situation? Can we maybe train ourselves to better resist social pressure, not just in specific situations we've rehearsed in advance, but across the board?"]

Prentice, Deborah and Robb Willer. "Pluralistic Ignorance: The psychology behind why people defend the norms they secretly despise." You Are Not So Smart #181 (July 30, 2020)

Pruitt, Jos. "Racist Psychology Today article claims black women are objectively less attractive than other women." Feministing (May 16, 2011)

Reich, John W. Radical Distortion: How Emotions Warp What We Hear. Prometheus, 2012. ["Our social unity is under attack from extremists on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Often the loudest and most influential public voices today are also the most divisive. Amid the din of conflicting claims, accusations, and counteraccusations, voices of moderation can no longer be heard. Radical speech is creating hazards for civil discourse and even for governance. Under such conditions, how will we ever find common ground to advance the needs of the nation? Psychologist John W. Reich presents answers to this question in this insightful discussion of the social-science research on the decision-making processes of those who endorse extremist beliefs. A key finding of this research is that extremism causes selective hearing and biases our very ability to form objective judgments. In fact, radical speech leads to radical hearing and impedes our willingness to consider moderate viewpoints.Based on these findings, Reich presents seven principles whereby we can reduce or eliminate the toxic influences of extremist rhetoric and selective hearing. These include becoming aware of how emotion affects our judgments, accepting the fact that we live in a diverse society where differing points of view are common, and detecting when extremist rhetoric is designed solely to attack its opponents. If knowledge is power, then the best antidote to toxic speech is increased scientific understanding of how our judgments are formed. By making the latest social-science research on this important subject accessible, Radical Distortion takes a crucial first step toward creating a more civil society."]

Ricard, Matthieu. "Happiness as Human Flourishing." On Being (2017) ["A French-born Tibetan Buddhist monk and a central figure in the Dalai Lama's dialogue with scientists, Matthieu Ricard was dubbed "The Happiest Man in the World" after his brain was imaged. But he resists this label. In his writing and in his life, he explores happiness not as a pleasurable feeling but as a way of being that gives you the resources to deal with the ups and downs of life and that encompasses many emotional states, including sadness. We take in Matthieu Ricard's practical teachings for cultivating inner strength, joy, and direction." Krista Tippett's introduction "Compassion is a Skill to be Developed."]

Ripley, Amanda. "Complicating the Narratives." The Whole Story (June 27, 2018)  ["What if journalists covered controversial issues differently — based on how humans actually behave when they are polarized and suspicious?"]

Roeser, Rob. "Transforming Education." Mind and Life (September 7, 2023) ["Wendy speaks with contemplative educator and developmental psychologist Rob Roeser. Rob has been working to re-envision the educational system for decades, and has been at the forefront of understanding how we can best integrate mindfulness and compassion into school settings. This conversation covers many topics, including: his initial exposure to integrative school systems; educating for life, instead of just participation in the global economy; focus on the body, nature, and our inherent "earthiness"; studying schools in India that integrate meditation; integrating science and viewing contemplative practice as building skills; applying a developmental lens to contemplative education; the key role of educating adults alongside children; changing culture and norms; how social processes drive the development of attention in children; our innate tendencies towards both compassion and othering; attention training as a relational practice; the relevance of a secure base; leveraging developmental "windows of opportunity"; practices that highlight our shared humanity; systems thinking in education; and re-enchanting the gift of learning."]

Sanyal, Mithu. "Rape: From Lucretia to #MeToo (Verso, 2019)." New Books in Psychology (December 11, 2020) ["My guest today, author Mithu Sanyal, describes the topic of rape as a ‘cultural sore spot,’ one that requires yet eludes wide conversation. Her latest book, Rape: From Lucretia to #MeToo (Verso, 2019), bravely starts this conversation. It covers the history of rape as well as of our divergent and misguided conceptions for it, and it addresses the topic’s intersection with matters of gender stereotypes and racism. We unpack these topics in our interview, along with the psychological phenomena undergirding conflicts over consent and body sovereignty. This episode will be of interest for anyone interested in the problems of sexual violence and gender bias. Mithu Sanyal is an award-winning broadcaster, academic, and author based in Dusseldorf. Her prior book, Vulva, has been translated into five languages."]

Schneider, Kirk. Horror and the Holy: Wisdom-Teachings of the Monster Tale. Open Court, 2013. ["Throughout history, human beings have been strangely fascinated by the monstrous and the macabre. In Horror and the Holy, a study of the classic horror story, Kirk Schneider explains the compelling power of such tales as a result of our thirst for the sacred, and identifies elements of the holy in familiar blood-curdling yarns.True horror arises when the mundane becomes unexpected and when the contained breaks free of its confining chains to become unlimited. Anything boundless tends to become terrifying, argues Schneider. It is infinitude, which draws us to the unsavory, infinitude that lurks behind dread. Sheer bliss, paradise, or Nirvana therefore always has the potential to turn into horror, as limits fall away and the boundless expanses of infinity open up. While ecstasy is a glimpse of the infinite, terror is full disclosure. Drawing upon a detailed and telling analysis of eleven well-known horror stories, Dr. Schneider finds that a spiritual understanding of life can be attained through horror. Classic horror steers a middle path between fanaticism and despair: the path of wonderment. Horror teaches us that human personality is paradoxical; that revulsion and disgust are the obverse of excitement and freedom, and that both poles are vital to individual, social, and ecological well-being."]

Slingerland, Ted. "Why Trying To Hard Can Backfire On You." Hidden Brain (June 3, 2024) ["Thinking is a human superpower. On a daily basis, thinking and planning and effort bring us innumerable benefits. But like all aspects of human behavior, you can sometimes get too much of a good thing. This week, we talk with philosopher Ted Slingerland about techniques to prevent overthinking, and how we can cultivate the under-appreciated skill of letting go."]

Strick, James E. "(Re)Introduction to Wilhelm Reich." Against Everyone #59 (February 12, 2019) ["Psychoanalyst, sexual liberationist, radical philosopher, and brilliant scientist Wilhelm Reich remains one of the misunderstood and influential rebels in recent history. I've always been a fan of Reich's, but frankly, did not fully understand him myself: His work is so radical that it challenges many of our most basic assumptions about the world and our culture. I've been wanting to do an AEWCH episode on Reich for a long time, but most people who write about him misinterpret his work and end up producing messy books that don't do him justice. Enter Dr. James Strick, professor at Franklin & Marshall College, historian of science, and author of the excellent book, Wilhelm Reich, Biologist from Harvard University Press. I first heard of James's work when former science colleagues of mine, who all studied under Lynn Margulis with me, told me about his work on Reich. Both Margulis and Reich were intensely polarizing figures, but Reich is the one so dangerous to the status quo that his work was seized and destroyed by the US government.
James and I cover much of the breadth of Reich's work, including his Sex-Pol work; why people choose to be oppressed and chose their oppressors; why Marxists feared Reich even as he was working with and for them (and the same with the psychoanalysts!); why Reich felt he had to measure libido, and how he thought he could do that; why pleasure matters; a Reichian perspective on Trump; Reich's concept of character armor; how Reich used dialectical materialism in his scientific work; Reich's discoveries about cancer; cloudbusters; what orgone energy and orgone accumulators are, anyway; and more!"]

---.  "Wilhelm Reich, Biologist (Harvard University 2015)." New Books Network (October 6, 2015) ["The author of the line above - who scrawled it in his private diary in the midst of a series of experiments in which he thought he was creating structures that were some kind of transitional stage between the living and nonliving - had quite a life. A "midwife to the sexual revolution of the 1960s" who was famed for his work on the science of orgasm, was widely maligned as a charlatan and pseudoscientist, did extensive work on the science of cancer, had his books and instruments publicly burned by the US government, and died in prison: it's hard not to find Wilhelm Reich fascinating. In his new book, James E. Strick reminds us that Reich was also a diligent and accomplished laboratory scientist whose work has potentially important implications for the modern biosciences. Wilhelm Reich, Biologist (Harvard University Press, 2015) takes readers into the making of this modern scientist, from his early relationships with Freud and dialectical materialism, to his work on the orgasm as a kind of "electrophysiological discharge," to his research into potential treatments for cancer. The book concludes by considering why understanding Reich's scientific work matters for us today, including a brief introduction to some recent experimental work related to Reich's research. It is an absorbing story that's also a pleasure to read, and pays careful attention to Reich's scientific work while still translating it in clear terms for non-specialist readers."]

Tobin, Vera, et al. "Spoiler Alert! The Psychology Of Surprise Endings." Hidden Brain (December 3, 2018)

Way, Niobe, et al. "Guys, We Have A Problem: How American Masculinity Creates Lonely Men." Hidden Brain (March 19, 2018)

 West, Stephen. "A conservative communist's take on global capitalism and desire. (Zizek, Marx, Lacan)." Philosophize This! #199 (April 15, 2024) ["Today we talk about the distinction between left and right. Lacan's thoughts on desire. How Capitalism captures desire and identity. I would prefer not to. Moderately conservative communism."]

---. "The Frankfurt School (Part 7): The Great Refusal." Philosophize This! #114 (December 23, 2017) ["What Marcuse starts to realize is that the Great Refusal, in order to be done effectively, has to be an extremely individual, personalized journey that people embark on. Because if the Great Refusal is ultimately you being a personification of radical subjectivity, well, what subjectivity are you trying to radicalize? Your own subjectivity. And it takes a deep understanding of that subjectivity to be able to change it. See, because what happens so often is, people see the way the world is; they believe with every fiber of their being that something needs to change about it. And they get so caught up looking at things out there, external to them in the world that they want to change so badly, that they forget about looking inside of them and changing themselves first. You know, there’s this attitude people often have of, “Well, if I’m the one that’s trying to live the Great Refusal here, then obviously I’m not part of the problem. Look, I’m the one that has a moral intuition that people should be liberated. I’m the one that wants to fight every day to make sure people aren’t needlessly repressed. It’s other people out there that don’t believe this stuff that need to change, not me.” Marcuse would say to this person, you’ve already fallen into a trap of perpetuating the way that things are. Marcuse would ask, do you think there’s any baggage you’re carrying around, having been born, raised, and conditioned to think of the world in the way that you do by a system as dominating as monopoly capitalism? Do you think it’s possible that conditioning has a strong effect on the way you feel liberation should occur? What sort of problems might that lead to down the line if you find yourself a member of one of these #movements? The answers to these questions became massively important to Marcuse throughout his later work. And understanding the answers to them, as we’ll see by the end of this episode, is the biggest step you can take towards actually living the Great Refusal."]

---. "The Frankfurt School: Erich Fromm on Freedom." Philosophize This! #151 (February 6, 2021) ["Key Takeaways:
Development of Individualism: Fromm compares the evolution of human society to the growth of a child, highlighting a move from dependence to independence. This individuation process, seen through historical stages from pre-civilization to modern society, reflects an increase in personal freedom and responsibility.
Freedom’s Double-Edged Nature: Fromm argues that increased individual freedom, while providing autonomy and choice, also brings isolation and anxiety. This duality is evident in modern society, where people enjoy unprecedented personal freedoms but also face the burden of making meaningful choices alone.
Negative vs. Positive Freedom: Fromm distinguishes between negative freedom (freedom from external constraints) and positive freedom (freedom to act on one's own will). He suggests that true freedom requires a balance of both, emphasizing the importance of using our autonomy to foster connections and meaningful actions.
Escape from Freedom: Fromm identifies ways people escape from the challenges of freedom: authoritarianism (seeking power or submission), destructiveness (acting against life and change), and automaton conformity (blindly following societal norms). These escapes represent a retreat from the responsibilities of freedom and individuality.
Recommended Reading:
Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm (1994): This book explores the psychological challenges associated with the transition from traditional societies to modern freedom, and how this shift can lead to authoritarianism.
"The Art of Loving" by Erich Fromm: A profound analysis of love as an art that must be actively practiced and developed, rather than a passive feeling. Fromm explores how love, in its various forms including romantic love, familial love, and self-love, is an expression of one's life and a key to human fulfillment.
The Essential Fromm: Life Between Having and Being by Erich Fromm (2014): This work encapsulates Fromm's views on achieving a fulfilling life, focusing on the dichotomy between 'having' and 'being', and the art of living well."]

---. "The Frankfurt School: Erich Fromm on Love." Philosophize This! #150 (January 30, 2021) ["Key Takeaways:
The Problem of Human Existence and Separateness: Erich Fromm posits that a fundamental issue in human existence is the feeling of separateness or existential loneliness. This awareness of being separate from others and the universe drives people to seek connections beyond themselves, often through love, to alleviate this sense of isolation.
Transactional vs. Genuine Love: The podcast explores the difference between transactional love (where love is treated as a commodity in a personality market) and genuine love. Fromm criticizes the former as being about mutual benefit and not true love, suggesting it leads to relationships that are shallow and likely to fail.
Love as an Active Faculty: Fromm argues that love should be viewed not as a passive emotion that happens to someone, but as an active faculty, a skill that can and should be developed. True love involves a constant, active effort to connect and care for others.
Mastering the Art of Love: The episode discusses Fromm's view of love as an art form that requires dedication and practice, similar to mastering any skill. He emphasizes the importance of humility, courage, faith, and discipline in developing the ability to love genuinely and deeply.
Recommended Reading:
Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm (1994): This book explores the psychological challenges associated with the transition from traditional societies to modern freedom, and how this shift can lead to authoritarianism.
"The Art of Loving" by Erich Fromm: A profound analysis of love as an art that must be actively practiced and developed, rather than a passive feeling. Fromm explores how love, in its various forms including romantic love, familial love, and self-love, is an expression of one's life and a key to human fulfillment.
The Essential Fromm: Life Between Having and Being by Erich Fromm (2014): This work encapsulates Fromm's views on achieving a fulfilling life, focusing on the dichotomy between 'having' and 'being', and the art of living well."]

White, Judith B., et al. "Frequent Social Comparisons and Destructive Emotions and Behaviors: The Dark Side of Social Comparisons." Journal of Adult Development 13.1 (March 2006)

Williams, Margot. "At Guantanamo Bay, Torture Apologists Take Refuge in Empty Code Words and Euphemisms." The Intercept (January 29, 2020)

Yang, Amber. "The Top 25 Censored News Stories of 2017 - 2018: #13 The Limits of Negative News and Importance of Constructive Media." Project Censored (October 2, 2018)

Zimbardo, Philip. "The Psychology of Evil Inside of Trump's Concentration Camps." The Chauncey DeVega Show #255 (October 10, 2019) ["Philip Zimbardo is one of the world's leading authorities on the psychology of cruelty, groupthink, and evil. Most famous for the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, Dr. Zimbardo has written dozens of books and articles including the powerful and disturbing book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil.  Dr. Zimbardo explains how America under Donald Trump is fully devolving into a state of violence, authoritarianism, and cruelty and the many ways that the Trump regime encourages thuggery against nonwhite immigrants, migrants, and refugees by law enforcement and others. Dr. Zimbardo also highlights the connections between his infamous Stanford Prison Experiment and the evil taking place inside of Donald Trump’s concentration camps. Chauncey tells some harsh truth about how the American corporate news media, many members of the Democratic Party, and too many average Americans were in denial for too long about the fascist white supremacist threat embodied by the Trump regime – and which is now fully obvious and naked in the president’s and his handlers’ recent declaration that he is a king who is above the law and cannot be impeached for any reason. Chauncey also shares his thoughts about politics of the great new film Joker and its damning indictment of neoliberalism, the culture of cruelty, and gangster capitalism."]