Friday, October 31, 2008

Relationships and the brain - Shrink Rap Radio review

Every time Shrink Rap Radio presents an interview Dr. Dave does with a psychologist who speaks about relationships or relational therapy, I guess, everybody should be interested. You do not have to be an amateur-psychologist for that. In the latest issue, when Dr. Dave interviews Dr. Stan Tatkin, I think one should be especially interested. (feed)

The scene must be painfully familiar to all of us and hopefully not from our own relationships, but if so, know it can be helped. The scene is this: a row arises from the tiniest of triggers. A simple tone of voice, one look in the eyes, one touchy subject and the couple is swept into the maelstrom of irritation, confusing emotions, incriminations and the such. Dr. Tatkin offers an unexpected explanation for the phenomenon and takes this into applied couples therapy - and claims it works.

His view is that the way our brain works is the trigger. He claims our brains are first and foremost shaped for survival and hunting. This involves the kind of, non-verbal, immediate triggers into agitated states. What we are much less adapted to, is the proximity of another, of another brain and interpret that as a safe situation. Too easy, within that proximity the hunter, hunted state is triggered.

It is as usual a very interesting podcast. And as usual this is not only thanks to the excellent guest but also to the wonderful interviewer David van Nuys. There is only one thought that came up with me and seemed not to be addressed by Tatkin, nor asked by Dr. Dave, but seems extremely relevant. Is Tatkin's portrayal of the way our brain works and reacts applicable to men and women to the same extent? I was under the impression the female brain works quite differently and doesn't have the strong separation of right and left hemisphere Tatkin describes. That would show to make women much more stable or at least acting differently in relations. Well, listen to the show and see for yourself.

More Shrink Rap Radio:
Psychologist writer,
Dana Houck, Prison Psychologist,
The humane working place,
Nirvana and the Brain,
Psychoanalysis - Shrink Rap radio review.

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New podcasts of October at Anne is a Man!

A novelty this month was the attention to podcasts in foreign languages. Not just the Dutch, that are always there. In addition this month there was one German and three Hebrew podcasts reviewed. They each go in their own category, but I will make a category of Hebrew Podcasts and possibly a German, or other languages category as well.

In the category of History Podcasts:
MMW 4 (UCSD) (review , site, http://podcasts.ucsd.edu/podcasts/rss.aspx?PodcastId=249)
The Making of the Modern World part 4, about the period 1200 - 1750 AD.

Teaching Company (review , site, feed)
A promotional podcast from the Teaching Company, a company that sells high quality lectures on audio.

Making History - עושים היסטוריה (review, site, feed)
Hebrew podcast about history, with an emphasis on the history of science and of technology.

Biography Podcast (Learn Out Loud) (review, site, feed)
Various biographies attended to by readings from original sources.

קטעים בהיסטוריה (review, site, feed)
Pieces of History, a Hebrew podcast. Selected topics in history.

In the category of Philosophy and Thought Podcasts:
Philosopher's Zone (ABC) (review, site, feed)
ABC's philosophy show with Alan Saunders

Beyond Good and Evil (Librivox) (review, site, feed)
Nietzsche's masterpiece read aloud on podcast.

In the category of Arts and Culture Podcasts:
Frankenstein, or modern Prometheus (Librivox) (review, site, feed)
Mary Shelley's novel read aloud on podcast.

Volkis Stimme (review, site, feed)
German podcast. Last week's news recounted with a comical touch.

מה שהיה היה (review, site, feed)
A Hebrew podcast from the Hebrew University's radio station 'Har Hatzofim' in Jerusalem. What is supposed to be a history podcast, turns out to have an special artistic quality.

In the category of Economics Podcasts :
EconTalk (review, site, feed)
A conversational podcast on economics.

In the category of Science Podcasts:
Science & the City (review, site, feed)
Lecture podcast from the New York Academy of Sciences

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Anne is a Man this weekend

For this weekend I have about seven blog posts in draft. I am doubtful whether I am going to post them all, but I'll list them anyway. If any of those you haven't seen until Sunday, you will see them soon afterwards.

- According to regular schedule, later today, on October 31, I will be posting an overview of the New Podcasts that were reviewed in the past month.

- Tomorrow, on November 1, as usual on every first of the month, I will be posting my full list of reviewed podcasts. This list has passed the 200 mark this month!

Other posts that are likely to be published between now and Sunday evening are:
- A review of Shrink Rap Radio; an issue about relational therapy.
- Podcasting is dead say some people and podcast entrepreneur Cameron Reilly explores this idea in talk held over a year ago.
- Four new shows have been released since the last time I reviewed In Our Time. It is about time to address the podcast again.
- The Word Nerds had a new show out about Debating.
- Berkeley's History 5 is about half way through the semester and I want to pay attention to what is said about the Industrial Revolution.