Some feelings arrive uninvited and refuse to leave. Armand DiMele opens the new year by cataloguing the emotions people most dread, from jealousy and rage to lust and melancholy, and asks why feeding a negative feeling only makes it more real. Callers and live email responses drive the conversation.
Uncomfortable feelings like jealousy, disgust, and schadenfreude exist because they once helped us survive. Armand DiMele and co-host Roberta Maria Atti apply evolutionary psychology to seven “deadly sentiments,” showing how emotions override rational thought to shift behavior instantly in the face of unforeseen threats or losses.
Sibling rivalry is rooted in biological competition for scarce resources, chiefly parental time and attention. Armand DiMele traces the dynamic from birth order through adult behavior, drawing on callers’ stories, and offers parents concrete guidance on reducing destructive competition at home.
Why do we turn people and needs into abstract objects? Armand DiMele argues that objectification is a defense against vulnerability, whether it shows up as racial dehumanization, sexual fetish, or the jealous conviction that no one can be trusted. Callers trace these patterns back to childhood wounds.
Love means something different to everyone, and Armand DiMele makes the case that it is fundamentally an internal feeling rather than a fixed set of behaviors or rules. He examines love as fear, possession, safety, sex, and even addiction, arguing that your version of love is valid whatever form it takes.
