Our practices of holding people morally and legally responsible for what they do rests on causal relationships between our mental states and our actions – a desire for revenge or a fear for one’s safety may cause a violent act. In either case, John Campbell argues, there is a psychological causal process that leads from the motivating mental state to the act ... Show More
Nov 10
Amie Thomasson, "Rethinking Metaphysics" (Oxford UP, 2025)
The word “metaphysics” conjures up thoughts of very hard questions about reality and deep, perhaps unresolvable, metaphysical mysteries. But is that the right way to think about the subject matter of metaphysics? According to Amie Thomasson, very clearly no. In her new book, Reth ... Show More
1h 3m
Oct 20
Ladelle McWhorter, "Unbecoming Persons: The Rise and Demise of the Modern Moral Self" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
How should one live? What should one do? And what do these questions have to do with being a good person? In Unbecoming Persons: The Rise and Demine of the Modern Moral Self (University of Chicago Press, 2025), Ladelle McWhorter reorients these questions through a genealogy of th ... Show More
1h 10m
Oct 10
S. Orestis Palermos, "Cyborg Rights: Extending Cognition, Ethics, and the Law" (Routledge, 2025)
Until recently, no one could access the detailed contents of your mind directly the way only you can. This level of protection of our mental data was guaranteed by the way we are built biologically – and it can no longer be taken for granted. In Cyborg Rights: Extending Cognition ... Show More
1 h
Apr 2023
What the World of Psychology Gets Wrong About Men
<p>Several years ago, the American Psychological Association issued a set of guidelines for psychologists working with boys and men. Guideline #1 says: "Psychologists strive to recognize that masculinities are constructed based on social, cultural, and contextual norms." Guidelin ... Show More
54m 29s
Dec 2020
RU121: Dr Vanessa Sinclair On Violence, Rendering Unconscious, Why War, Freud, Einstein
On this episode of Rendering Unconscious Podcast, I discuss violence in an array of forms including intimate partner and gun violence, and read excerpts from On Psychoanalysis and Violence: Contemporary Lacanian Perspectives (Routledge, 2018), Rendering Unconscious: Psychoanalyti ... Show More
1h 10m
May 2023
Crowds, obedience and the psychology of group behavior, with Stephen Reicher, PhD
What happens when people gather in crowds – whether for political rallies, protests, football games or religious pilgrimages? Stephen Reicher, PhD, of St. Andrew’s University in Scotland, discusses why “mob mentality” is a myth; other misconceptions about crowd behavior; the role ... Show More
48m 26s
Nov 2023
Thoughts Behind Vulnerable Narcissistic Behaviors
Cluster B
This show aims to educate the audience from a scientifically informed perspective about the major cluster B personality disorders: narcissism, histrionic, borderline, and antisocial.
References:
Kealy, D., & Rasmussen, B. (2012). Veiled and Vulnerable: The Other Side ... Show More
19m 18s