Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Resurrection after rape - Shrink Rap Radio

Shrink Rap Radio the outstanding psychology interview podcast had a most intriguing talk with Matt Atkinson about his work with victims of rape. Atkinson is a therapist who shows a remarkable ability to combine the latest scientific insights with the qualitative and creative demands to the therapist patient relationship.

Trust is an issue in therapeutic relationships in all circumstances, but when a man is the therapist to (mostly) women who are trying to survive the experience of rape, that tension is all the more obvious. Atkinson adds to this disadvantage his large posture and the fact he is an American native (Ojibway) complete with the attributes that go with that ethnicity. He relates how he manages to let this work as an advantage to him and his clients. Then we can talk about resurrection.

The truly fascinating angle Atkinson takes is one that has been mentioned generally with PTSD, that the victim has been hurt in the soul. The recovery to the soul demands much more than the standardized therapies, but rather the personal focus and creativity of the therapist and the dedication of the client. Atkinson manages in a very convincing and inspiring fashion to give us touch of this intensive experience. It is one of these amazing SRR interviews you have to hear.

More Shrink Rap Radio:
Life Changing Lessons,
Shrink Rap Radio - 200 great podcasts,
Technology and The Evolving Brain,
Nova Spivack,
Relationships and the brain,
and notably: PTSD and the soul (Ed Tick).

Cuban Missile Crisis from Soviet perspective - Gilder Lehrmann

The Gilder Lehrmann Institute for American History had an exceptional issue in their Historians on the Record podcast. Their guest was Sergei Khruschev, the son of ... , to talk about the Cuban Missile crisis. The lecture was both informing and entertaining.

There are two charming and thought provoking aspects to Khrushchev's lecture. The expected and still fascinating part is the one that is filled with his personal memories. With him we follow his father step by step through the crisis. Nothing could be more exciting than that. The Soviets regarded Cuba as an unreachable, remote backwater and had no real intention to push the US to the brink. You get to understand why the Hot Line was established afterwards.

How is that the US was pushed to the brink? It is psychology and Khrushchev makes mild fun of the Americans, but also challenges with an idea: the cold water was an event in which the adversaries carefully eyed the other, but were thus looking into a mirror. They project onto the enemy their own sate of mind, their own logic. And so, the Soviets could not anticipate how even the tiniest threat from Cuba could push the Americans into a frenzy. they had been living with menace on each border and overlooked the fundamental difference with the US, which has always had remote enemies. Similarly, he argues, the Americans overreacted to 9/11. Very nice line of thinking.

More Gilder Lehrmann:
African American generations (Ira Berlin),
Theodore Roosevelt (Patrica O'Toole),
Slave Culture (Philip Morgan).