Category: Emotions & Inner Life

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The Fear of Being Rejected July 16, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Anxiety & Fear, Emotions & Inner Life

Rejection is wired into our DNA as a survival mechanism, but some people’s rejection radar is far too sensitive, turning minor slights into emotional crises. Armand DiMele traces rejection sensitivity from evolutionary roots to modern overpraise culture, body image anxiety, and the self-fulfilling prophecy of paranoid withdrawal. Callers share vivid personal examples.

Surviving Verbal Attack July 10, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Communication & Conflict, Emotions & Inner Life

When someone screams at you, your body responds the way animals do under threat: freeze, flee, fight, or shut down. Armand DiMele maps these survival instincts onto relationship conflict and proposes a fresh alternative, reframing a partner’s rage as illness rather than a personal attack.

Color Perception and the Brain July 8, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, The Mind & Neuroscience

Color isn’t just aesthetic, it’s neurological. Armand DiMele traces how sharp shapes trigger the amygdala’s danger response, why color preferences vary by culture and temperament, and how personal history, like a caller who stopped wearing red after her grandmother’s death, shapes what we can and cannot stand to see.

The Passive Aggressive Personality July 2, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Communication & Conflict, Emotions & Inner Life

Passive aggression is not just dropping the birthday cake. Armand DiMele unpacks it as a pervasive pattern of stubbornness, procrastination, and obstructionism rooted in fear of confrontation, then maps the full spectrum from passive resistance to predatory aggression, arguing that assertiveness is the healthy middle ground.

The Normal and the Unusual June 24, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Identity & The Self

What makes a person abnormal? Armand DiMele walks through the criteria psychiatry uses to define abnormality, from maladaptivity to cultural norms, then turns to paraphilias, hidden secrets, and the shame that grows the harder we work to conceal them. Callers share their own experiences of feeling outside the norm.

The Power of Fantasy and the Human Mind June 19, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, The Mind & Neuroscience

Fantasy is not the enemy but a survival tool built into the human mind. Armand DiMele traces imagination from its evolutionary roots through daydreaming, sexual fantasy, fixed beliefs, and full-blown delusion, arguing that the real danger is losing the thread back to reality, not the fantasizing itself.

Moods and How They Shape Us June 17, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Depression & Mood, Emotions & Inner Life

What exactly is a mood, and why do people sometimes cling to their worst ones? Armand DiMele breaks down the anatomy of mood, from Robert Thayer’s energy-tension model to the full spectrum of human emotional states, and explains why exercise, food, alcohol, and sex all serve as mood regulators. Caller stories about a bipolar spouse and a man who refused to give up his depression add vivid texture.

Father’s Day Feelings June 12, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Family & Parenting

Why is Father’s Day so emotionally loaded? Armand DiMele walks through the many reasons people carry unresolved anger toward their fathers, from absenteeism and favoritism to criticism and triangulation, and how those feelings quietly shape adult relationships, work, and identity. Callers share fond memories alongside the pain.

Denial and Its Many Forms June 4, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Addiction & Compulsion, Emotions & Inner Life

Denial is the foundation of addiction, the first response to death, and the reason heart attacks go untreated. Armand DiMele breaks down six distinct forms, from simple denial of fact to the subtler denial of cycle and denial of denial, and explains how facing reality, even in someone else’s dying moments, can be the greatest gift we offer.

The Psychology of Financial Fear April 15, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Anxiety & Fear, Emotions & Inner Life

Fear of financial ruin runs deeper than money, Armand DiMele argues, touching the soul itself. Callers share job loss, mounting debt, and creeping shame, while Armand connects compulsive buying disorder, depression-era mentality, and the surprising opportunity hardship can offer to relationships.