Mood: Bad

↕

The Neuroscience of Feeling and Numbness with Dr. Sherry Siegel July 22, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Sherri Siegel
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, The Mind & Neuroscience

Armand DiMele and Dr. Sherry Siegel, M.D., a neurologist, unpack alexithymia, the inability to identify or express emotions, tracing it from spinal reflexes to brain chemistry. They explore how trauma and abuse can shut down feeling as a survival mechanism, why couples clash over emotional expression, and how hormones and neurotransmitters shape what we feel.

Stealing as a Search for Love July 9, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Jenny, Sarah, Stephanie D'Ambra, Susan
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Armand DiMele argues that theft, in nearly all its forms, is rooted in a felt absence of love. From childhood shoplifting to time theft at work, he traces how people take what they cannot seem to receive. Stephanie D’Ambra, LCSW, joins to discuss fighting institutional systems, and callers weigh in on corporate fraud and righteous anger.

Reading People Between the Lines July 2, 2009

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

Armand DiMele argues that the small, offhand things people say reveal far more than we let ourselves notice, especially when loneliness or desire clouds our judgment. The episode moves from reading red flags in new relationships to the nocebo effect, body dysmorphia, and culture-bound psychiatric syndromes from Haiti to India.

The Need to Trust June 17, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Why do we so desperately need someone to trust, and how do we know when that trust is being exploited? Armand DiMele examines the psychology of trust from both sides, dissecting how gurus, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals earn or betray it, then takes a call from a man struggling to quit a long marijuana habit.

The Pleasure of Repetition June 4, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Repetition is the hidden engine behind nearly everything we enjoy, from exercise and music to sex and daily ritual. Armand DiMele argues that recreation is literally re-creation of the self, and that understanding your own repetitions is key to recognizing what you truly need. Callers explore compulsive eating, adoption anxiety, and a father’s struggle with his daughter growing up.

The Qualities of a True Leader April 30, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Identity & The Self, Personal Growth & Change

What makes someone a genuine leader? Armand DiMele examines the qualities that define effective leadership, from integrity and humility to assertiveness and creativity, then traces how birth order and family dynamics shape the way people relate to power and authority throughout their lives.

The Symbols We Live By April 29, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Identity & The Self, Love & Romantic Relationships

Every person becomes a symbol to someone else, and that projection shapes desire, conflict, and love more than most people realize. Armand DiMele traces how childhood wounds turn strangers into father figures, mother figures, or pain symbols, and invites callers to examine the symbols they embody and chase.

Why We Lie and Why It Works April 28, 2009

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

Lying is woven into human nature, and Armand DiMele argues it usually traces back to powerlessness, not malice. Drawing on neuroscience (prolactin, oxytocin), animal behavior, and callers’ personal stories, the episode asks why we demand truth from others while punishing them for telling it.

Childhood Fantasies and the Need for Significance April 23, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Anxiety & Fear, Identity & The Self

Feeling insignificant is not just painful, it triggers the same survival anxiety our ancestors felt when cast out of the group. Armand DiMele connects the amygdala’s panic response to a deep need to matter, then takes calls from listeners whose childhood dreams of fame, travel, and service all point back to the same hunger for acknowledgment.

The Masks We Wear When Wounded April 22, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Anne Marganow, Claudia Fox, Diane, Matilda, Susie
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Identity & The Self

Hiding pain behind a strong face is survival instinct, but it costs us. Armand DiMele uses the silverback gorilla as a metaphor for how wounded people perform strength, weaving in the Platters’ “Great Pretender” and a famous poem by Charles Finn to show how masks protect us while keeping us unknown and alone.