Afleveringen
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In this episode, Matthew Pieknik and Christopher Russell speak with Gohar Homayounpour about her book Persian Blues, Psychoanalysis and Mourning (Routledge, 2023)
Psychoanalysis is, Homayounpour tells us early in the interview, “a profession for dreamers, for people who don't know what to do with themselves. for freaks. This is not a profession for people in suits at universities who have a clear idea of the status quo. It's the absolute opposite. It's the carnival, you know, it's still unofficial, it's the subversive because that's the discourse of the unconscious. But this is a dangerous business, you know, and it should be for both analytic subjects in the room. I'm in favor of absence. I'm in favor of disturbance. I'm in favor of pollution and darkness. I think these are things that need to be celebrated.”
In Persian Blues, Psychoanalysis and Mourning, Gohar Homayounpour plays a theme and variations on loss, love, and family against the backdrop of Iran’s chaotic recent past. Homayounpour is simultaneously Shahrzad, the fearless storyteller, and Shahrzad’s analyst: subjecting fairy tales to fierce new insights, while weaving an indigo thread through her own devastation on the death of her father and the wonders and horrors of motherhood. A blue thread, or melody, runs though the separations and emigrations of her family and patients driven or broken apart by war, and likewise through the fraught world inhabited by Persian women. This book breaks new psychoanalytic ground, offering a radical rejection of traditional clichés about Iran, and Iranian women, but its unsparing elegance transcends any political agenda, bridging the ocean of a shared and tragic humanity. Persian Blues, Psychoanalysis and Mourning will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically informed readers, as well as those interested in grief, Iran, and women’s experiences.
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Drs. Messina and Gill talked about cognitive offloading in our digital age—how smartphones, AI, and other technologies are reshaping our mental habits, our memory, our capacity for attention, and ultimately, our emotional lives.
Cognitive offloading refers to the process of using tools and technologies to take over mental functions we used to perform ourselves. Whether it's using GPS to navigate, storing phone numbers in our contacts, or asking ChatGPT for help organizing thoughts, we’re increasingly externalizing our thinking.
They also discussed the psychoanalytic defense mechanisms involved in our reliance on technology, how AI impacts metacognition, and how this process influences us both individually and collectively.
From a psychoanalytic perspective, cognitive offloading is similar to projection—placing uncomfortable labor or responsibility outside of ourselves. It may also involve disavowal: we know we’re becoming dependent, but we ignore or deny the psychological cost.
Dr. Messina mentioned that Freud saw memory as a core element of identity adding that when we delegate memory to devices, we risk fragmenting the ego. She also elaborated on the concept of “metacognition” which refers to the awareness and regulation of one’s own thought processes, also described as “thinking about thinking.” It involves understanding how we learns, plans, monitors, and evaluates our cognitive strategies to achieve specific goals.
Dr. Gill talked about cognitive offloading from a neuroscience perspective noting that the practice of using external tools or resources to reduce mental effort involves complex interactions between several brain regions. He discussed how the prefrontal cortex plays a central role in cognitive offloading while the hippocampus is critical for memory encoding and retrieval.
How to mitigate problems that arise from cognitive offloading was also discussed as well as the risks of overreliance on AI chatbots which can lead to cognitive atrophy. This is now referred to as artificial intelligence chatbots induced cognitive atrophy or AICICA.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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What makes one sentence easy to read and another a slog that demands re-reading? Where do you put information you want readers to recall? Drawing on cognitive neuroscience, psychology and psycholinguistics, Writing for the Reader’s Brain (Cambridge University Press, 2025) provides a practical, how-to guide on how to write for your reader. It introduces the five 'Cs' of writing - clarity, continuity, coherence, concision, and cadence - and demonstrates how to use these to bring your writing to life.
Dr. Yellowlees Douglas is the founder of ReadersBrain Academy and has spent over twenty-five years teaching writing to everyone from professors to freshmen.
This interview was conducted by Renee Hale, who holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and works in R&D for the food and beverage industry. She is the author of The Nightstorm Files, a voracious reader, and enjoys sharing the joy of new perspectives with listeners.
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What do you do when faced with a big, important question that keeps you up at night? Many people seek quick answers dispensed by “experts,” influencers, and gurus. But these one-size-fits-all solutions often fail to satisfy, and can even cause more pain.
In How to Fall in Love With Questions, Elizabeth Weingarten finds inspiration in a few famous lines from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, and then takes this insight – to love the questions themselves – to modern science to offer a fresh approach for dealing with the uncertainty in our lives. What if our questions—the ones we ask about relationships, work, meaning, identity, and purpose—are not our tormentors, but our teachers? Weingarten offers a fresh approach for dealing with seemingly unsolvable questions, not as a quick fix but to deepen our sense of being fully alive. Weingarten shares her own journey and the stories of others, including a part of my own story after the events of 9/11 in New York City when I first turned to Rilke’s letters, to chart a different, and better, relationship with uncertainty.
Designed to inspire anyone who feels stuck, powerless, and drained, How to Fall in Love with Questions challenges us to unlock our minds and embark on the kind of self-discovery that’s only possible when we feel most alive—that is, when we don’t know what will happen next.
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The secret insights of economics, translated for the rest of us. Should I buy or rent? Do I ask for a promotion? Should I tell people I’m pregnant? What salary do I deserve? Should I just quit this job? Common anxieties about life are often grounded in economics. In an increasingly win-lose society, these economic decisions—where to work, where to live, even how to live—have a way of feeling fixed and mistakes terminal. Daryl Fairweather is no stranger to these dynamics. As the first Black woman to receive an economics PhD from the famed University of Chicago, she saw firsthand how concepts of behavioral economics and game theory were deployed in the real world—and in her own life—to great effect.
Hate the Game: Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love, and Work (U Chicago Press, 2025) combines Fairweather’s elite knowledge of these principles with her singular voice in describing how they can be harnessed. Her great talent, unique among economists, is her ability to articulate economic trends in a way that is not just informative, but also accounts for life’s other anxieties. In Hate the Game, Fairweather fixes her expertise and service on navigating the earliest economic inflection points of adult life: whether to go to college and for how long; partnering, having kids, both, or neither; getting, keeping, and changing jobs; and where to live and how to pay for it. She speaks in actionable terms about what the economy means for individual people, especially those who have the sneaking suspicion they’re losing out. Set against her own experiences and enriched with lessons from history, science, and pop culture, Fairweather instructs readers on how to use game theory and behavioral science to map out options and choose directions while offering readers a sense of control and agency in an economy where those things are increasingly rare.
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Working with Parents in Therapy: A Mentalization-Based Approach, by Norka Malberg, Elliot Jurist, Jordan Bate, and Mark Dangerfield (American Psychological Association, 2023) presents parenthood as a developmental process that can be supported by a mentalization-based model of intervention. The authors first provide an overview of mentalization (i.e., making sense of the mental lives of ourselves and others) and its related concepts, as well as guidance on assessment, formulation, treatment, and supervision from a mentalization framework. They then review challenges and opportunities for parents across development, with rich case examples and vignettes for each developmental phase.
Dr. Jurist, who has doctorates in both philosophy and clinical psychology, brings a philosophical lens to our discussion of this book. We talk about mentalization and its development, as well as its role in culture, psychological health, and parenting.
About the Guest:
Elliot Jurist, Ph.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology and Philosophy at the Graduate Center and The City College of New York, CUNY. From 2004-2013, he served as the Director of the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at CUNY. From 2008-2018, he was the Editor of Psychoanalytic Psychology, the journal of Division 39 of the APA. He is also the editor of a book series, Psychoanalysis and Psychological Science, from Guilford Publications, and author of a book in the series, Minding Emotions: Cultivating Mentalization in Psychotherapy, from the same publisher (the book has been translated into Italian, Chinese and Spanish, and was named best theoretical book in 2019 by the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis). He is the author of Beyond Hegel and Nietzsche: Philosophy, Culture and Agency (MIT Press, 2000) and co-author with Peter Fonagy, George Gergely, and Mary Target of Affect Regulation, Mentalization and the Development of the Self (Other Press, 2002), the latter of which has been translated into five languages and won two book prizes. He is also the co-editor of Mind to Mind: Infant Research, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis (Other Press, 2008). His research interests concern mentalization and the role of emotions and emotion regulation in psychotherapy. In 2014, he received the Scholarship Award from Division 39 of the APA, and in 2024, he was given the Leadership award from the same organization. He also writes a Substack newsletter Mental(izing) Health, in which he elaborates on the relevance of mentalization in art, government, culture, philosophy, and other wide-ranging topics, as well as in the mental health world. He is currently writing a book titled When Therapy Met Memoir, which is about references to therapy in contemporary memoirs. Along with his wife and two children, he lives with two ancient, insubordinate dachshunds, one of whom smiles.
Links:
Mental(izing) Health Substack newsletter
Dr. Jurist’s website
Mentalized Affectivity Lab
Dr. Malberg's website
Dr. Bate's faculty page
Dr. Dangerfield's website
Emily Pichler is a clinical psychologist practicing in Burlington, Vermont.
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What if the key to understanding your child’s toughest behaviors isn’t just about discipline or routines – but about how their body and brain are processing the world around them?
In this episode of the New Books Network, Parenting Trainer Patrick Ney sits down with Nancy Ceulemans, neurodevelopmental educational consultant and co-author of From Awareness to Action – Empowering Early Childhood Educators to Support Children with Autism (2024). While the book is aimed at early childhood educators, the insights Nancy shares are just as powerful for parents of both autistic and neurotypical children.
Our conversation goes straight to the heart of the matter – why children act out in ways that often leave adults confused, overwhelmed, or stuck. Nancy brings decades of experience and a deeply holistic view of child development, tying together neuroscience, sensory integration, motor function, and family dynamics in a way that’s easy to understand and immediately useful.
Here are some of the highlights from our conversation:
– We talk about the impact of environmental toxins on children’s behavior – and some of the surprising sources many parents overlook
– Nancy explains how the sensory systems can be hypo- or hyper-reactive, and how this plays a major role in behaviors like meltdowns, shutdowns, or extreme reactions to everyday situations
– We offer practical tips for parents – whether your child is autistic or not – on what to do in the heat of a meltdown or when sensory issues are getting in the way of daily life
– Nancy dives into the role of muscle tone and motor systems in regulating emotions and behavior – something that’s rarely discussed but often the missing piece
– She also shares moving and insightful stories from her own life and clinical practice – including helping a child with selective mutism and working with a girl who refused to wear clothes, uncovering the hidden sensory cause behind it
The big message in this conversation is simple – when we look beyond the surface of behavior, we can start to understand what a child is really asking for. Whether your child is hitting, kicking, biting, spitting – or just struggling to cope with the world – this episode will give you new tools, new perspectives, and a deeper sense of connection.
Nancy Ceulemans is available for consultation at www.uniquelearning.ca
To learn with Patrick Ney in free Masterclasses, visit www.allaboutparenting.com
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In episode 5 Dr. Karyne Messina and Dr. Harry Gill talked about what can happen when middle-age and older adults watch screens too much as opposed to engaging in other important tasks in life during Erik Eriksson’s last two stages of development.
In the “Generativity versus Stagnation” stage (ages 40-65), productive individuals focus on contributing to society by raising families, engaging in meaningful work, and connecting with their communities. This can’t be done in optimal ways when people spend too much time watching screens. Excessive screen time may also lead to a sense of stagnation if it prevents individuals from engaging in life in meaningful ways.
In the “Integrity vs. Despair” stage (65+ years old), people who are connected to others don’t watch screens excessively because they are engaged in life in their later years reflecting on what they have accomplished whether it is through writing books or sharing information with others in different ways. Too much screen time can interfere with the ability to engage in a meaningful review of one’s life. Instead of sharing wisdom with younger generations, older adults who focus of watching screens for many hours a day may become isolated and disconnected from real-world interactions, potentially leading to a sense of despair.
Dr. Messina discussed the fact that adults who spend 6 or more hours a day on social media platforms tend to be much more depressed and anxious than those who don’t.
Dr. Gill talked about the effects of too much screentime on sleep, explaining how blue light emitted by screens interferes with falling asleep because of the lack of production of melatonin. This prevents people from falling asleep.
They both talked about the benefits of turning off phones and televisions early in the evening so that a person, couple or family can have quality time participating in some type of meaningful activity versus watching what people on screens are saying or doing.
Another topic included in this podcast and YouTube video outlined ways to mitigate problems associated with too much screen time. Dr. Messina focused on the importance of community which she thinks is important at all ages. If getting together in person isn’t possible, talking with a friend on the phone is better than using this device for passive purposes such as scrolling through social media posts.
Dr. Gill reminded people how important it is to meet in person and said some of his patients have actually enjoyed going back to work full-time once they have gotten used to it again. He added that screen aren’t always negative later in life if people aren’t able to meet in person. For example, if older people can’t drive or easily meet with friends or family members in person, he said some of his patients have weekly Zoom meetings with others which helps them feel connected.
Drs. Gill and Messina talked about being addicted to screens and what people can do about this condition which starts with a commitment to set limits and make rules about screentime. Finding other worthwhile or pleasurable activities was included in the discussion such as listening to music, reading, painting, doing crossword puzzles, etc.
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In today’s episode, Dr. Pierce Salguero sits down with Miguel Farias, an experimental psychologist and researcher of religion, spirituality, and cognition. Together we try to get to the bottom of whether meditation is actually good for you through a comparison of Miguel's research on the adverse effects of meditation with my research on Asian notions of meditation sickness. Along the way, we discuss the limitations of modern Western understandings of consciousness, and explore whether we can develop a more expansive, multifaceted understanding of altered states both pleasant and unpleasant.
If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in deep conversations about the dark side of Asian religions and medicines, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts. You can also check out our members-only benefits on blackberyl.substack.com. Enjoy the show!
Resources mentioned:
Miguel Farias and Catherine Wikholm, The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You? (2019).
Miguel Farias, Oxford Handbook of Meditation (2022).
Miguel Farias et al, “Adverse Events in Meditation Practices and Meditation-based Therapies: A Systematic Review” (2021).
Pierce Salguero, “‘Meditation Sickness’ in Medieval Chinese Buddhism and the Contemporary West” (2023).
Peter Berger, The Homeless Mind (1973).
Joseph Henrich et al. article on the Müller-Lyer illusion (2010).
The source for the term “monophasic bias” is apparently Charles Laughlin’s chapter “Transpersonal Anthropology” in Roger Walsh’s book Paths Beyond Ego (1993).
Pierce Salguero, A Lamp Unto Yourself (2025).
Resources provided by the interviewee on blackberyl.substack.com:
Introduction to the Oxford Handbook of Meditation
Pierce Salguero is a transdisciplinary scholar of health humanities who is fascinated by historical and contemporary intersections between Buddhism, medicine, and crosscultural exchange. He has a Ph.D. in History of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (2010), and teaches Asian history, medicine, and religion at Penn State University’s Abington College, located near Philadelphia. www.piercesalguero.com.
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Today I’m speaking with Ciara Greene, co-author with Gillian Murphy of the new book, Memory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember (Princeton UP, 2025). Ciara is associate professor in the School of Psychology at University College Dublin, where she leads the Attention and Memory Laboratory. The scientific study of human memory has become even more relevant in an age where we have every technology under the Sun to alleviate us of the need to remember. It makes sense that we worry about losing the ability to remember today, but even Socrates 2,500 years ago lamented that the recently invented technology of writing harmed people’s ability to remember. Memory not only connects us with our past, but it instructs us in how we should behave, what we should believe, and underlies the patterns of our everyday thoughts. Memory Lane takes readers behind the most up-to-date scientific research on memory. How memory actually works versus how we think it works is a wide chasm, and Ciara and Gillian are excellent guides for bridging the gap.
Caleb Zakarin is editor at the New Books Network.
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In Menstrual Myth Busting: The Case of the Hormonal Female (Policy Press, 2025), Dr. Sally King interrogates the diagnostic label of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) to expose and challenge sexist assumptions within medical research and practice. She powerfully demonstrates how the concept of the ‘hormonal’ premenstrual woman is merely the latest iteration of the ‘hysterical’ female myth. By blaming the healthy reproductive body (first our wombs, now our hormones) for the female-prevalence of emotional distress and physical pain, gender myths appear to have trumped all empirical evidence to the contrary.
The book also provides a primer on menstrual physiology beyond hormones, and a short history of how hormonal metaphors came to dominate medical and popular discourses. The author calls for clinicians, researchers, educators and activists to help improve women’s health without unintentionally reproducing damaging stereotypes.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s episodes on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
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The last few years have brought increased writings from activists, artists, scholars, and concerned clinicians that cast a critical and constructive eye on psychiatry, mental health care, and the cultural relations of mental difference. With particular focus on accounts of lived experience and readings that cover issues of epistemic and social injustice in mental health discourse, the Mad Studies Reader: Interdisciplinary Innovations in Mental Health (Routledge, 2024) brings together voices that advance anti-sanist approaches to scholarship, practice, art, and activism in this realm. Beyond offering a theoretical and historical overview of mad studies, this Reader draws on the perspectives, voices, and experiences of artists, mad pride activists, humanities and social science scholars, and critical clinicians to explore the complexity of mental life and mental difference.
Voices from these groups confront and challenge standard approaches to mental difference. They advance new structures of meaning and practice that are inclusive of those who have been systematically subjugated and promote anti-sanist approaches to counter inequalities, prejudices, and discrimination. Confronting modes of psychological oppression and the power of a few to interpret and define difference for so many, the Mad Studies Reader asks the critical question of how these approaches may be reconsidered, resisted, and reclaimed. This collection will be of interest to mental health clinicians; students and scholars of the arts, humanities and social sciences; and anyone who has been affected by mental difference, directly or indirectly, who is curious to explore new perspectives.
Bradley Lewis is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist with a background in the arts and humanities. He is Associate Professor at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and he is on the editorial board of the Journal of Medical Humanities. His books include Moving Beyond Prozac, DSM, and the New Psychiatry: The Birth of Postpsychiatry; Narrative Psychiatry: How Stories Can Shape Clinical Encounters; and Experiencing Epiphanies in Literature, Cinema, and Everyday Life (forthcoming).
Alisha Ali is Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University. Her research focuses on the mental health effects of oppression, including violence, racism, discrimination, and trauma. She is the co-editor of the book Silencing the Self Across Cultures (Oxford University Press) as well as the co-editor of The Crisis of Connection (NYU Press).
Jazmine Russell is the co-founder of the Institute for the Development of Human Arts (IDHA), a transformative mental health training institute, and host of Depth Work: A Holistic Mental Health Podcast. She is an interdisciplinary scholar of mad studies, critical psychology, and neuroscience, with experience working both within and outside the mental health system.
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Consciousness Mattering (Bloombury, 2023) presents a contemporary Buddhist theory in which brains, bodies, environments, and cultures are relational infrastructures for human consciousness. Drawing on insights from meditation, neuroscience, physics, and evolutionary theory, it demonstrates that human consciousness is not something that occurs only in our heads and consists in the creative elaboration of relations among sensed and sensing presences, and more fundamentally between matter and what matters. Peter Hershock argues that without consciousness there would only be either unordered sameness or nothing at all. Evolution is consciousness mattering.
Shedding new light on the co-emergence of subjective awareness and culture, the possibility of machine consciousness, the risks of algorithmic consciousness hacking, and the potentials of intentionally altered states of consciousness, Hershock invites us to consider how freely, wisely, and compassionately consciousness matters.
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Eco-anxiety. Climate guilt. Pre-traumatic stress disorder. Solastalgia. The study of environmental emotions and related mental health impacts is a rapidly growing field, but most researchers overlook a closely related concern: reproductive anxiety. Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question (U California Press, 2024) is the first comprehensive study of how environmental emotions influence whether, when, and why people today decide to become parents—or not.Jade S. Sasser argues that we can and should continue to create the families we desire, but that doing so equitably will require deep commitments to social, reproductive, and climate justice. Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question presents original research, drawing from in-depth interviews and national survey results that analyze the role of race in environmental emotions and the reproductive plans young people are making as a result. Sasser concludes that climate emotions and climate justice are inseparable, and that culturally appropriate mental and emotional health services are a necessary component to ensure climate justice for vulnerable communities.Books and Resources mentioned in today’s episode:Check out Conceivable Future hereCheck out Climate Mental Health Network hereCheck out Climate Psychology Alliance hereCheck out The Good Grief Network here Find Parenting in a Changing Climate: Tools for Cultivating Resilience, Taking Action, and Practicing Hope in the Face of Climate Change by Elizabeth Bechard hereFind Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Anxiety by Britt Wray hereFind A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet by Sarah Jaquette Ray hereDr. Jade S. Sasser is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Gender & Sexuality Studies and Society, Environment, and Health Equity at the University of California, Riverside. Her research explores the relationships between reproductive justice, women’s health, and climate change. She is the author of two books, On Infertile Ground: Population Control and Women’s Rights in the Era of Climate Change (2018, NYU Press), which won the Emory Elliott Book Award, and Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future (2024, UC Press). Dr. Sasser has a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from University of California, Berkeley; an MA in Cultural Anthropology from UC Berkeley; and an MPH in Global Health from Boston University. Her podcast Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question can be found here.Jessie Cohen holds a Ph.D. in History from Columbia University and is an editor at the New Books NetworkLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology
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Models of the Mind: How Physics, Engineering and Mathematics Have Shaped Our Understanding of the Brain (Bloomsbury, 2021) provides a multifaceted and approachable introduction to theoretical neuroscience. It discusses some major topics of the field, including both the milestones from their history and the currently open questions.
It's accessible for a general audience, not expecting any previous knowledge of neuroscience or maths. At the same time, neuroscientists have described it as impressive. According to Gaute Einevoll, professor of brain physics, "this is a book that belongs on the bookshelf of any computational neuroscientist and lots of other people".
In our conversation, we covered some of the overarching themes of the book. The constant push and pull between mathematics and biology: mathematical models simplifying complex phenomena and biology pointing out the importance of a specific detail. What efficiency means for a biological system, like the brain. Whether and how much we can assume that an evolved system is efficient.
Dr. Grace Lindsay also talked about how science communication has helped her explore and discuss topics not directly related to her research. She started blogging and podcasting during her PhD, which has led to further writing opportunities, including this popular science book.
Similar to Models of the Mind, the Lindsay Lab is multidisciplinary: It uses artificial neural networks for psychology, neuroscience, and climate change. In the interview, Dr. Grace Lindsay talked about her decision about the lab's profile She explains the overlap in technologies used for studying visual systems and satellite images. We also hear about examples of how scientists in various fields have taken on research topics related to climate change.
Links:
Dr. Grace Lindsay's homepage
Lindsay Lab
Dr. Grace Lindsay's blog post about Models of the Mind
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In Anatomy of a Psychotic Experience (Ipbooks, 2022), psychoanalyst Richard Reichbart recounts a psychotic experience when he was in his thirties juxtaposing an account written a few years after the experience with reflections made decades later. This unique work captures both the subjective experience of a particular kind of psychosis, and the analytic interpretation of that experience.
"He graphically portrays both the feel and the logic of a psychotic episode foreshadowed by his separation from college and from law school and ultimately precipitated by the loss of his beloved grandfather. His search for his identity led him to the Navajo reservation which was 'ideal for the nurturance of my psychosis.' He gives testimony to the help he received from two outstanding psychoanalysts who worked with him to unpack and weave together the effects of childhood events and fantasies on his adult personality. A book for those at all levels of psychoanalysis, one that demonstrates the possibility of psychoanalyzing psychosis."
- JANICE LIEBERMAN, PHD
Akilesh Ayyar is a spiritual teacher and writer in New York. He can be reached at [email protected].
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The word Leader often brings to mind the heroic image of a charismatic, confident, and persuasive person who seems to "know" what to do in an instinctual, gut-driven way.
In Decision Leadership: Empowering Others to Make Better Choices (Yale UP, 2022), Don A. Moore and Max H. Bazerman offer a well-researched and compelling corrective to this view.
They describe organizations as decision factories in which effective leaders are not lone heroes, but decision architects who design situations and policies that enable those around them to make wise, ethical choices that are consistent both with their own interests and the organization's values.
Built on a foundation of behavioral economics and decision science research, this book is full of real-life stories and concrete examples of the incentives, structures, and systems that can be used to guide negotiations and decision making. This approach avoids many of the common pit-falls of overconfidence and dependence on a few heroic figures, allowing strong leaders to have positive impact far beyond their limited individual range.
Authors recommended reading:
Negotiation: The Game Has Changed by Max H. Bazerman
Perfectly Confident: How to Calibrate Your Decisions Wisely by Don A. Moore
Also by these authors:
Judgment in Managerial Decision Making by Max H. Bazerman and Don A. Moore
Hosted by Meghan Cochran
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Microchips in our vaccines, stolen elections, climate change denial--in the face of a bewildering range of misbeliefs that stem from mistrust of informational sources, exposure to misinformation and disinformation, and partisan polarization, it's easy to dismiss those who disagree with us as "delusional", "psychotic", or merely "ignorant". But what if none of these judgments are supported by how we really come to believe things, and the truth is that we are all prone to false beliefs? What can we do to protect ourselves in this post-truth world?
In False: How Mistrust, Disinformation, and Motivated Reasoning Make Us Believe Things That Aren't True (Oxford UP, 2025), psychiatrist and clinical professor Joe Pierre invites readers to journey with him through the normal quirks of brain functioning--such as "heuristics", cognitive biases, motivated reasoning, cognitive dissonance, and bullshit receptivity--that create the cognitive vulnerabilities to false belief innate within us all. With a cross-disciplinary approach, False illuminates the psychology of false belief that lies at the root of contemporary media mistrust, science denialism, and political polarization, and highlights that contrary to popular opinion, deficits of intelligence and mental health are usually not to blame.
With a refreshingly unbiased lens, Pierre suggests an antidote to false beliefs and makes the case for softening our convictions, viewing our ideological opponents with compassion, and mending the rifts in our relationships as individuals and societies alike.
Joe Pierre MD is a Health Sciences Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.
Caleb Zakarin is editor at the New Books Network.
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Parenting is an emotional rollercoaster – filled with moments of joy, stress, and everything in between. But what if there was a scientific way to understand and navigate these emotions more effectively? In a compelling new podcast episode, Patrick Ney, Lead Trainer at All About Parenting, sits down with Dr. George S. Thompson to explore the fascinating world of polyvagal theory and its profound impact on child development.
This conversation is a must-listen for parents, educators, and anyone looking to deepen their understanding of human connection. Dr. Thompson, co-author of Polyvagal Theory and the Developing Child (Norton, 2021) unpacks the science behind how our nervous systems shape our emotions, behaviors, and relationships from birth to adulthood.
What You'll Discover in This Episode
The Science Behind Connection – Dr. Thompson explains how our nervous system constantly scans for safety and threat, influencing everything from our stress levels to our ability to bond with others.
Why Your Child Looks at You for Reassurance – Ever noticed your child checking your face when they’re unsure? That’s social referencing in action. Dr. Thompson breaks down why parental expressions and tone of voice play a crucial role in emotional regulation.
Understanding the Three States of the Nervous System – Calm and connected, fight-or-flight, and shutdown – these three states dictate how we react to the world. Learn how to recognize them and respond in ways that foster security and resilience in children.
The Power of Co-Regulation – As parents, our nervous systems influence our children’s emotional states. Dr. Thompson shares practical ways to use this knowledge to create a more peaceful and connected home environment.
Debunking Polyvagal Theory Myths – Some skeptics claim polyvagal theory lacks scientific backing. Dr. Thompson sets the record straight, drawing on decades of research and clinical application.
Why This Episode Matters
Many parenting theories focus on discipline, communication, or routines – but few address the biological foundation of emotional security. Polyvagal theory offers a groundbreaking perspective: that a child’s ability to learn, connect, and regulate emotions depends on their sense of safety at a physiological level. This episode dives deep into how this works, offering practical tools that every parent can apply.
Dr. Thompson also shares powerful real-life examples, including an in-depth discussion of a child navigating a residential care program. Through this case study, he illustrates how understanding the nervous system can transform how we support children, especially those who have experienced trauma.
A Conversation You Won’t Want to Miss
Patrick Ney brings his own parenting experiences into the mix, making this discussion both insightful and relatable. Whether you’re new to polyvagal theory or already familiar with it, this episode will leave you with a new appreciation for how our nervous systems shape our lives.
If you want to better understand your child’s emotions, improve your parenting approach, or simply gain a fresh perspective on human behavior, tune in now.
Listen to the full episode today – your child’s nervous system will thank you!
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In this episode Dr. Karyne Messina, a New Books Network host, and Dr. Harry Gill discussed the negative effects of excessive screen time on young adults' mental health and development, emphasizing the importance of face-to-face interactions and shared experiences. They focused on Erik Erickson’s first phase of adulthood which is the Intimacy versus Isolation phase from neuroscience and psychoanalytic perspectives.
Dr. Gill talked about the prefrontal cortex of our brains that continue to wire until age 25. This doesn’t happen in an optimal way when people are passively tuned into screens. He highlighted the importance of connecting with real people versus social media “friends.” He also said that humans are much more prone to isolate as opposed to being in intimate relationships which takes work. He added that meeting on a screen promotes pseudo intimacy that is not an adequate substitute for being with a real person.
Dr. Messina discussed a study that found adults who spend 6 hours a day or more on social media platforms tend to be much more depressed and anxious. She also mentioned that one of her middle-aged patients who gave up all social media activity, realized much to his surprise that he had 25 to 30 extra hours a week to do things he really enjoyed.
They both talked about the benefits of turning off phones and televisions early in the evening so that a person, couple or family can have quality time participating in some type of meaningful activity versus watching or reading what people on screens are saying or doing. The also discussed how blue light emitted by screens interferes with the production of melatonin which prevents people from falling asleep.
Another topic included was ways to mitigate problems associated with too much screen time. Dr. Messina focused on the importance of community which she thinks is important at all ages. If getting together in person isn’t possible, talking with a friend on the phone is better than using this device for passive purposes such as scrolling through social media posts. Dr. Gill reminded people how important it is to meet in person and said some of his patients have actually enjoyed going back to work full-time once they got used to it again.
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