Private Practice Podcast

We're starting a new season of the podcast with an introduction to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's idea of 'Flow' as a process of ordering consciousness. Having looked at a different idea in psychoanalysis in each episode of the previous season, this time we're taking more time to discuss one idea in detail, and gradually look at how it applies to the ideas of Season 4 as well as other real-life situations. There are 10 chapters in the book and we are looking at one chapter per episode. You can read along throughout the season if you wish, and details of the book are found below, but it is not a prerequisite.

That's the sensible and informative stuff out the way, now some behind-the-scenes context. This episode was recorded in "The London Private Practice" in the summer. At the start, Dan assumed we were just making an introductory episode as usual, but James had in mind that it would be a full discussion of Chapter One of the book of Flow; you'll see how that pans out. It's business as usual in one sense; James takes multiple goes to make a point and just about gets there in the fourth or so! You're in for a comprehensive treat. We assume you come to us not for slick and concise self-help advice, because we make absolutely no promise to deliver that whatsoever. Much more enjoyable if you are so inclined, this is a Dan-and-James interpretation of one of the best-researched insights into the ordering of thoughts, in the context of a world that has changed substantially since the book was written. Welcome to the Dan & James Book Club, feel free to participate however you wish.

Find all episodes of Private Practice Podcast and send us your thoughts at www.privatepracticepodcast.net (yes, the e-mail does exist now, I'm sure we will appreciate your concise, considered and extraordinarily witty contributions).

'Flow' by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi claims to be 'The classic work on how to achieve happiness', although we think it's more like 'how to create states of purposeful complexity', which make for enjoyment, which can be interpreted as happiness. But obviously no one is going to write that on the cover of a book. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi spent over two decades looking scientifically at situations in which people report feelings of deep enjoyment. His studies revealed that what makes experience genuinely satisfying is a state of ordered concentration and complexity, which eliminates the psychic entropy that causes anxiety, and he called this 'Flow'. Enough of this, let's get the season, erm, flowing into your ears.

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Wheels up in 5 mins, welcome aboard this internal flight to your ego, where the weather is currently calm and sunny, but there are storm clouds on the horizon. It's the Private Practice Podcast Summer Special, loaded with all your emotional baggage and featuring another shambolic edition of the Sack Game, as well as a follow-up to our Core Beliefs episode, where James burns some of his adolescent defunct beliefs on the summer camp fire. We had much less fun making this than you're going to have listening; you are welcome.

We discuss:

Travelling to escape, but making the mistake of taking yourself with you.

The advantage of travelling alone.

Letting go of adolescent beliefs with better information in later life.

Belonging.

Failure.

Put your seatbelt on, there will be turbulence. Vivaldi's Summer and Jazz Gangsters' Bebop Jazz from archive.org.

Season 5 coming this autumn.

All episodes from this season can be found at privatepracticepodcast.net

NEW! Contact us at [email protected]

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Attention Autistes! This episode was recorded a year ago in Dan's allotment, at the end of season two. If you're new to this podcast, don't start here. But instead of chucking it on the compost we decided to release it, since it highlights a number of changes in James pre- and post-France. Unfortunately for right now, most of these changes have been positive ("even if I say so myself"), meaning James is (delete as you see fit) challenging/insufferable to listen to in this former episode. But it's been cut down to half an hour, so just be happy that you'll get the subsequent 30 minutes of your life back… and rest assured, next week's season finale will be a bumper-fun-packed Summer Special!

Now you have your expectations suitably lowered, we discuss:

Dan's soothing feeling he gets from gardening.

James' dislike of nature as it was, which has been entirely overturned in the subsequent months like wonderfully fertile top soil.

Ways in which travel can be rewarding or stressful, including an astonishingly accurate description of what would become James' isolated retreat in Montpellier, long before he realised the idea was seeded.

"That's what keeps you calm; the separation from nature and the control" – Dan sums up old James in one line, which he (I! I'm James writing this!) clearly didn't listen to in horror.

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You're into what now? What on earth would your father think of you?! This week we look at perversion as deviation from a biological or societal predominance, and how this informs personal development, opening up the very deep hole into which harmless but also abusive deviations fall equally. We introduce a theoretical view of a fist-full of perversions, but fuller penetration is achieved with our own lived experiences.

We discuss:

The age of consent in different societies.

The difference between societal and biological conditions which create minorities.

Forming an identity as a member of a minority group.

Demonising perversions and the consequences of misleading correlation.

The parental super-ego and what it thinks about your filthy life…

Enlightenment.

Children (and James) and their obsessions with bodily functions and genitalia.

The shocking discovery that Elton John is gay!

Originally based on 'Perversion' by Claire Pajaczkowska, but subsequently this episode was re-recorded a year later and the emphasis changed to ideas about forming identity within minority groups, which, as you will hear, leaves Dan with more thoughts at the end than when we started.

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There's a tarantula crawling over your face and you need to murder it now. Do something cathartic and that malicious monster will never breathe again! It's a juicy one this week; if every ten minutes were a leg, this would have eight, plus five minutes to count the numerous evil eyes. Should you listen, or will it ruin your life to hear the news that spiders are everywhere? Oops, that one just came out from under the sofa.

We discuss:

Ambivalence: why follow our example?

Why phobia can feel like a solution to ambivalence.

There's a lot about the function of phobia, basically most of the episode.

What is the difference between phobia and common sense in reaction to threat?

Scapegoating.

James discusses a particular week of teaching.

And someone with repressed homosexual desires goes to the swimming pool and can't take it any more, so to speak…

This episode relates the killing of spiders with Nazi concentration camps. If this triggers you, then maybe go and kill some spiders.

Referencing ideas from the book 'Phobia' by Ivan Ward.

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This week we share our phantasies, and the bad news for anyone craving something salacious is that once the F is replaced with a Ph, the result is James reliving his megalomaniac childhood. Think about all the times you have had an entire conversation or argument with someone, entirely in your head, playing both roles. Well now you have another chance to continue your phantasy critique of the lives of James and Dan, for as many hours after this episode as your subconscious can handle, and we shall remain blissfully unaware.

We discuss:

The difference between Fantasy and Phantasy.

Perception of others in the subconscious.

Conversations we have in our minds.

The function of phantasy in creativity and innovation.

Dan reveals his ultimate dream in life, and it mainly involves tomatoes.

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Jon Ronson mildly irritated James a couple of weeks ago, with an interview in which he expressed an opinion of psychoanalysis wasting his time and CBT coming to save him, pants outside tights, quicker than lightning. Or something like that. Well Dan has plenty of experience in CBT and wasn't going to let James' ignorant opinion of CBT's hollow vanity go unchallenged. Challenge James he does, in the blue corner… Meanwhile, in the red corner, James has the id, ego and superego in his box of tricks. Which side will win? Well both of course, because this isn't a sport and consciousness is highly nuanced and contextual. Having said that though, really James wins.

We discuss:

What is CBT and what's involved?

How is psychoanalysis different?

When is either relevant?

What is the id, ego and super-ego, and which one tells Dan to dress people up in school uniform/which finds this abhorrent?

And James describes the psychoanalytical process in a ridiculous 'Little Britain' style, prompting Dan to repeat the whole idea in a normal voice for his own sanity. Enjoy.

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'James Hall, My Life in Words' – This week Dan asks James to try and work out from where exactly his beliefs about himself come. Some would call this an unwise move, as the answer is likely to be comprehensive merely in the first act. But this episode offers a starting point for how jumbled thoughts can be ordered with the psychoanalytical process. It's an introduction to the idea of Core Beliefs, both for James and anyone else who has never fully questioned the truth of the internal conversation. As Dan says half way through, "Right, now we're getting there…"

We discuss:

James' life – you have been warned.

The internal voice at odds with what we believe to be true.

The simplicity of Core Beliefs, often lost in the chaotic soup of the internal conversation.

Chimney Sweeping the mind – some excellent advice from the wonderful Irvin Yalom.

Also, the word Dan cannot recall is 'pity'.

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Your friend goes to war and sees their comrade having their legs blown off. Meanwhile, you've just returned from a traumatic experience at the supermarket, where they'd run out of your favourite type of quinoa. On top of that, you've spent your whole life dealing with your parents' attitude that you were never the favourite child. Who wins at Trauma, you or your friend? In most cases, the truth of trauma is relative, by which I mean it probably involves your relatives. So if you want to blame your parents for all your problems, go ahead and listen to this episode for some ideas, and maybe we'll look at the problem of blame in a future episode. Equally, if you don't believe you've ever suffered from trauma, you're probably not paying enough attention.

We discuss:

Clinical trauma – how bad does it have to be?

Social trauma – recognising the influence of your childhood development, without the distraction of the linguistic ambiguity associated with the word 'trauma'

Attachment Theory

Rejection

Children being perfect until age 7, when the rot starts to set in! Or at least that's what James was told as a child.

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A woman as stiff as a plank, held by the neck and ankles between two chairs while her uterus is assumed to prowl around her body like a wild animal, and a drag queen, delivering a slick and formatted performance on TV, show the subject of Hysteria has always been fascinating to audiences. But today's celebrated hysterics are more of a postmodern pastiche of something that was once considered mysterious, while those uncelebrated carry the burden of a range of recognised and understandable topics, many of which we'll discuss in more detail later in the series. This episode is a concise dip into the origins of psychoanalysis.

We discuss:

The extinct idea of the uterus having untamed free will.

The above as an excellent excuse to bring up the Oedipus Complex.

Borderline Personality Disorder.

Based on 'Hysteria' by Julia Borossa.

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