Mood: Bad

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Hysteria and Conversion Syndrome September 26, 2006

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

Hysteria is a 4,000-year-old diagnosis that psychiatry buried but never resolved. Armand DiMele traces its two descendants, conversion syndrome and histrionic personality disorder, drawing on new brain imaging research showing that paralysis and other physical symptoms can be driven by the emotional centers of the brain rather than motor pathways.

Sleep Rituals and Disorders September 21, 2006

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

Sleep is rarely discussed in therapy, but your bedtime rituals reveal more about you than almost anything else. Armand DiMele walks through the psychology of sleep habits, shared beds, and disorders from insomnia and hypersomnia to sleepwalking and night terrors, then takes callers through their own sleep secrets.

Why Breasts Captivate Us September 20, 2006

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Identity & The Self, Sexuality & Desire

Why did breasts become so central to human attraction? Armand and his co-host trace the evolutionary argument that breasts function as a permanent frontal fertility signal, then connect breast implants and body obsession to deeper anxieties about aging, control, and early maternal bonds.

Why Womanizers Keep Looking for More September 14, 2006

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

Serial romantic pursuit, whether in men or women, often masks a search for the missing same-sex parent. Armand DiMele works through narcissism, sexual addiction, and erotomania to argue that until men find their father and women find their mother, true love stays out of reach.

When Pain Gets Locked Away August 30, 2006

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Kent Robertshaw
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Trauma & Healing

Armand DiMele and Dr. Kent Robertshaw, MD, Psychiatrist, examine why people lock away unbearable pain rather than face it, how children assign themselves blame for disasters and abuse, and why denial of death costs us empathy for suffering near and far.

Shame Addiction and Katrina August 29, 2006

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Roberta Maria Atin
Category: Addiction & Compulsion, Emotions & Inner Life

Toxic shame drives addiction, numbness, and violence, and Hurricane Katrina made that truth impossible to ignore. Armand DiMele and co-host Roberta Maria Atti trace how collective shame over race, poverty, and government failure sent millions into emotional deadness and substance use, and urge listeners to feel the pain rather than go numb.

The Need to Be Famous August 22, 2006

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

Why do 30% of adults regularly daydream about being famous? Armand DiMele traces the fame motive to childhood homes where recognition was scarce, arguing that the hunger to be seen by strangers is distinct from wanting wealth or power and intensifies across the lifespan, even into old age.

The Masculine and Feminine Sides of Men August 17, 2006

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Identity & The Self, Sexuality & Desire

Every man carries a feminine side and every woman a masculine one, and denying that hidden half drives attraction, obsession, and heartbreak. Armand DiMele draws on Jung’s concept of the anima and animus to explain why we fall hard for people who embody what we repress in ourselves, and how reclaiming that lost half is the real work of intimacy.

Mood Modification and Addiction August 16, 2006

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Kent Robertshaw
Category: Addiction & Compulsion, Emotions & Inner Life

Every addiction is really a mood management strategy. Armand and Dr. Kent Robertshaw, MD, Psychiatrist, walk through the core components of addiction, salience, mood modification, tolerance, and withdrawal, using gambling, shopping, cigarettes, alcohol, and internet use to show why substances and screens feel easier than people, and what actually helps someone stop.

The Father Child Bond with Dr. Kent Robertshaw August 9, 2006

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Kent Robertshaw
Category: Family & Parenting, Identity & The Self

Fathers are the least understood figures in child development, and Armand DiMele and Dr. Kent Robertshaw, MD, Psychiatrist, dig into why. They trace how absent or emotionally unavailable dads shape children’s self-esteem, how puberty fractures father-daughter bonds, and why men are socialized to convert sadness into anger rather than seek help.