Red pill, Blue pill, Traditional marriage, polyamory, feminism, Jordan Peterson's model: we try to sort out the value in each of these perspectives and the errors in them.
Dr Douglass and Dr Thompson discuss the gradual change in human culture towards increasing interpersonal isolation. We talk about how this came about, its negative psychological impacts, and how to change it.
We explore healthy and mature masculinity in contrast to "toxic masculinity." We contrast this with healthy and unhealthy femininity. We talk about the need for people to play out and mature in their aggression and how this is important to mature, health debate and political and ideological discourse in societies.
Tesla! The future is Psychology. We don't need self-driving cars, we need automated depression inoculation systems. We need technology informed parenting coaches. The Future looks like autonomous vehicles driving mentally disturbed, suicidal, eternal victims through the streets. While machine intelligence creeps its way closer to quantum processing and verifiable artificial Intelligence, human psychology appears to be headed for institutionalized loss of agency. What do you think is going to happen to the 30% percent of Americans currently showing signs of anxiety and depressive disorders? No scalable treatment exists capable of handling this magnitude of suffering. In this episode, we take a look at the overwhelming volume of psychic distress and speculate as to how we got here. The real frontier is the shy and illusive inner world of human experience. The Future is Psychology. We are going to make it through this truly bizarre period, and the solution might be right around the corner. This is the centennial episode on ETF.
These days you must have a stance on vaccines, gun-control, Ukraine, transgender issues and the economy. And you must hate and shame anyone who has a different stance. How did this happen? Is this okay? Or do we need to escape this prison of partisanism?
Retirement, Elephant style. We talk about the American program of life and retirement and how it forces everyone into a selfless, identity-less final chapter of life. We explore ways to break this cycle. We identify the need for Adventure, Community, and Meaning.
We further explore the dynamics of romantic relationships using Johhny and Amber as examples. We talk about the dynamics of jealousy, attachment insecurity, and borderline psychology.
Dr Thompson & Dr Douglass explore the psychology operating at the roots of Johnny and Amber's relationship. We talk about the human's violent impulse when our attachment needs are threatened, as well as the "king/queen complex" and how power corrupts.
Dr Thompson & Dr Douglass psychoanalyze Will's infamous slap. We talk about the US's strong reaction and why it captivated America. We talk about the relationship between Will and Jada and how that played into it.
Beneath everyone's political opinion lies a deeply personal, emotional psychology. To understand your political leanings, you must understand the unconscious emotional dynamics that were shaped in your childhood. If we are able to free ourselves from the partisan deadlock that is gripping the U.S. and much of the world, we will need to develop "dialectical thinking" which requires a psychologically-based self-awareness.
With each passing year, Americans are having less and less sex. Why is this? We look at sexuality in American culture and explore reasons for our change in sexual behavior and dating. We talk about how sex and relationships have changed across history.
Dr Douglass and Dr Thompson explore the new norm in dating and romantic relationships: the "situationship." We talk about what this term means and why situationships have become so common. We talk about relationships in contemporary times and how we have departed from traditional relationship norms.
We explore this minefield: Unplanned pregnancies, single mothers, the woman's right to choose, dead beat dads, pre-marital sex, children's need for their fathers, the culture of idealizing motherhood. We explore the controversial idea that, like relationships and sex, having a child should require two yes-es, not just one. Abortion, sex, consent, raising children and the culture of blaming men and assuming women are victims and angels--these are the subjects of this conversation.
Is the term trauma being misused or over-used? Is there truth to the saying "if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger"? Or do we need to avoid trauma at all costs and provide safe, sensitive healing to people's trauma? Dr Thompson defines trauma and differentiates it from difficult experiences that make a person stronger.
Psychologists Thompson and Douglass explore the psychology behind dating and attraction. They talk about being "creepy" and it's relation to the powerful male need for sex and sexual affirmation. The talk about the subtle qualities of being attractive and the catch 22 of showing one's desperate needs as repulsive to women.
Why do families fight at Christmas? Why do people get depressed? Psychologists Dr Douglass and Dr Thompson explore the psychology behind the Christmas tradition. What is happening in our culture around Christmas? Why is it such a powerful tradition? We identify similarities between Christmas and fantasies of romance or fantasies of transcendence. What is the best thing to teach kids about Santa Claus?
We explore the underlying emotional/psychological trends in most romantic relationships. We identify the common pitfalls in relationships and marriage. We identify alternative possibilities for love, sex and marriage. We discuss the pros and cons of monogamy, polyamory, nonmonogamy, serial monogamy, and casual dating.
Heroes inspire us. They soar to great heights and fill us with hope for transcendence. Then they crest, and dive, and crash ...and our tabloids rush to the scene to show pictures of their fabulous demise. America ravenously watches the rise and the fall. We can't get enough. In this video we explore the psychology behind this archetypal American story.
We talk about the explosion of fitness obsession in American over the last 20 years. We analyze the psychology behind this and we explore the healthy, and perhaps not so healthy roots of the drive to achieve fitness goals.
Humans are guided by stars. In ancient times, stars were the gods. Eventually they were replaced by religion. The wise men were guided to Jesus by the stars. Religion was replaced by great thinkers. Eventually George Washington and John Rockefeller were the new idols. In the 20th century our new gods/leaders became the stars of Hollywood.