Is greed a moral failing or simply the human condition? Armand DiMele and Dr. Bernard Starr, PhD, Psychologist, examine greed as a near-narcotic drive rooted in survival, comparing Wall Street excess and the Madoff scandal to universal human hunger for more health, love, and meaning.
Why do we want to be lied to? Armand DiMele uses the Bernie Madoff scandal as a jumping-off point to argue that humans are wired for deception, both giving and receiving it. Drawing on primate research and brain science, he explores the fine line between healthy trust and paranoid suspicion.
Rigid, perfectionistic people crack hardest when life goes wrong, and Armand DiMele explains why. He distinguishes OCD from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, showing how the desperate need to be right drives indecision, relationship conflict, explosive anger, and hoarding, and how admitting fallibility is the way out.
Our brains are wired for efficiency, but those same shortcuts can get us killed. Lawrence Gonzalez, Author of “Everyday Survival,” joins Armand DiMele to examine how mental models, automated behavior, and cultural complacency lead smart people into serious danger, from plane crashes to financial collapse.
Can we truly escape the identity built from our experiences, or are we prisoners of our own ego? Armand DiMele reunites with Dr. Bernard Starr, PhD, Psychologist, to trace the arc from 1970s feeling therapies and primal work to spiritual psychology and the limits of both approaches when it comes to genuine transformation.
A rigid mind is the root of most psychological suffering, from addiction to depression to PTSD. Armand DiMele argues that mental flexibility, the willingness to take in new information and break habitual patterns, is the single quality that separates a stuck life from an open one. Callers test the idea live.
What does it mean to be real, and how do we lose touch with it? Armand DiMele opens with a reading from The Velveteen Rabbit, then ranges from Prozac’s cultural impact to managed care, specialist bias, and the patient’s right to question treatment. A caller shares his experience of bipolar disorder, addiction, and the numbing effects of lithium.
Fear, not laziness, drives chronic procrastination. Armand DiMele talks with Gloria Aronson, author of “Procrastination Nation,” about the false beliefs keeping people stuck, from fear of failure and success to childhood shame, and how to trace avoidance back to its earliest roots.
Why does a more expensive pill relieve more pain? Dr. Dan Ariely, behavioral economist and author of ‘Predictably Irrational,’ joins Armand DiMele to explain how expectations shape everything from placebo responses to romantic choices, including why insecurity becomes an aphrodisiac for those driven by fear of abandonment.
Most people who quietly disappear from your life, practice, or group never say why. Armand DiMele and Stephanie D’Ambra, LCSW, examine the social and emotional forces that stop people from giving honest feedback, from fear of conflict to hidden agendas, and how providers and individuals can actually elicit the truth.
