Behind the Stigma

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May the force be with you! This week,  me and Dr. Alex Curmi from the Maudsley Learning Podcast deep dive into the fascinating mind of Anakin Skywalker, and what drove and dictated his actions. We discuss his attachment style, fear of abandonment, the role of the Jedi council, and whether he was in love or obsessed with Padme.  Could have Anakin's turn to the dark side to becoming Darth Vader been avoided? 

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In this week's episode, I speak with Nisrine Maktabi, psychotherapist and relationship expert on the concept of the drama triangle. What is the drama triangle? and how does it work in a toxic relationship? We also discuss how the dynamic of a toxic relationship works, and what are some of the traits of  an individual who projects these traits. 

This is the third series with Nisrine. We have previously spoken about Attachment Styles:
https://behindthestigma.buzzsprout.com/1402324/10395172-attachment-styles 
& 
Dating and Attachment: https://behindthestigma.buzzsprout.com/1402324/10496836-dating-attachment-styles

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In continuation of last month's theme of learning through conditioning, this month's education series is dedicated to social learning theory. Learn about the most popular psychologist of social learning theory and his infamous experiment in Stanford known as the Bobo doll experiment. 

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In this week's episode, I speak to Dr. Raphael Milliere, a philosopher of cognitive science, on the differences between consciousness and self consciousness. Dr. Raphael starts off by defining these terms and their distinction, and his work on how consciousness can be present while experiencing the loss of self. We also talk about measuring consciousness, Google's advanced AI system known as LaMDA, as well as consciousness in virtual reality. 

To learn more about his work visit https://raphaelmilliere.com/

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In this week's episode, Dr. Alex Curmi from the Maudsley learning podcast speaks to us about fantasy vs reality, and what role fantasy plays in our life. 
Dr. Alex defines what fantasy means and whether these fantasies are holding us back in some ways. We also talk about the role of dreams and daydreaming. We then finish up our discussion on how you can become more reality oriented.

For the original audio essay click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/audio-essay-8-reality-vs-fantasy/id1466932169?i=1000540090371

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How do we know what therapy is right for us? In this week's episode, clinical psychologist Alina Vasilache speaks to us about various forms of psychological therapies, and how they differ and are similar with one another. 

Therapies mentioned in this episode: Cognitive behavioral therapy, Dialectal behavioral therapy, schema therapy, internal family systems and humanistic theory.  

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What does it really mean to be mindful? In this week's episode, I speak to  Dr.  Alexander Curmi, psychiatrist from Maudsley NHS foundation trust about mindfulness practice. We discuss what mindfulness means to him with reference to Buddhism,  how he applies it in everyday practice with examples,  and finally, how mindfulness has been adopted in the West as a therapy intervention for various mental health issues. 

Other sources:
Maudsley Learning Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/6h2FCOoWZnUr88SQG0ytHn?si=a1-oAmGPR0etoFop13NjHQ&nd=1

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This week's episode is on the  English Romanian adoptee study (ERA). The ERA study is the first study to examine the long-term effects of early severe childhood deprivation on development. It dates back to 1960’s Romania, after the fall of Nicolai Ceausescu, the communist leader at the time, and its research is still ongoing up to date.

Today, 20 years later, I speak to Professor Sonuga-Barke, one of the leading researchers of  the study, about the most important findings in the research, and also where the children (or  adults) are now.

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Does  the name Ivan Pavlov ring a bell?  This month's education series is dedicated to the school of psychology known as behaviorism. We discuss its two main learning theories: classical and operant conditioning. 

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In this week's episode, I am back with  Alina Vasilache, clinical psychologist on another Q&A session. Alina answers questions on burn-out, self-esteem, grief and what she has learnt in her journey as a psychologist. 

You can now jump to the question of your interest, using time stamps!