PsycHacks

Right now, I'm playing through the surprising excellent "Guardians of the Galaxy" video game for the PlayStation 5. Among all of the first rate performances, I've been particularly charmed by Jason Cavalier's portrayal of Drax the Destroyer. In this pop psychology episode of PsycHacks, I'm going to offer a brief character analysis of Drax, focusing on two of his more admirable traits: his relationship to challenge and his attitude toward death. Check the game out for yourself and let me know what you think.

I experience anger as a voice in my head that tells me things. And those things that it tells me are lies. Anger is a deceiver. It offers the feeling of power in exchange for my self-control -- which actually renders me powerless in the face of my provoker. Anger is a useful servant, but a terrible master. The trick is to learn to yoke the power of anger to constructive, intentional action. Do this and even great achievements are possible.

The title of this episode is the last line in a poem by Percy Shelley, called "Ode to the West Wind." The question is obviously rhetorical, as Spring has followed Winter as an inevitability since the dawn of time. I like to keep this line in mind when I'm moving through challenging times. The darker it gets, the closer I approach the return of the light. There is no need for fear or panic: when Winter comes, Spring is never far behind.

What is love? I've developed my own unique answer to this question. I call it my parts of speech model of love, and I'd like share it with you today. Basically, with greater awareness and understanding, the nature of love evolves: from noun to verb to adverb. In this episode, I'll briefly discuss each stage, emphasizing the characteristics of its highest form: adverbial love. Happy Valentine's Day!

One of my all-time favorite writers is Haruki Murakami, and my personal favorite among his many excellent works is the imaginative and underrated "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World." In this book is a fantastic line, which just so happens to be the title of this episode: a good craftsman has one scar. Why might this be the case? In this episode, I'll break down the surprising wisdom contained within such a simple phrase.

It's hard to keep your cool when things don't go your way. As someone who used to get angry a lot, I've had to work hard to overcome my tendency to lose my temper. In this episode, I'll discuss one strategy that has helped me to stay frosty in provocative situations. I call it the price of peace. By quantifying the amount of money you would need to receive in order to abide in anger against your will, you can set an anger threshold for the various losses, frustrations, and disappointments that are subject to happening in life.

There's a Jewish parable that I love. A family goes to temple to make offerings to God by placing objects of value on the altar. However, the youngest child is distraught because he has nothing -- and so has nothing to give. So he decides to recite the alphabet, as it's all that he knows. According to the parable, this was the offering that was prized most highly by God. In this episode, I'll discuss why.

I like this phrase: "wanting is free." And I'm going to explain why in this episode. When others want things from you, it's important to remember that "wanting is free." That is, it cost them absolutely nothing to want those things. So there's no harm or loss that results from turning them down. And when you yourself want something, it's important to remember the same thing. That is, wanting is free...but getting is expensive. If you want to start getting what you want, then you have to be willing to spend resources, broadly defined.

Speech is magic. By uttering the appropriate sequence of sounds you can literally conjure things into existence within others' consciousness. In light of this, you can refine your capacity to speak what you want into being. In this episode, I'll discuss two tricks to doing this effectively. The first is to use your words to trap yourself successfully, and the second is to refrain from speaking what you don't want to occur. These are simple spells, but quite unbreakable.

Over the course of my clinical experience, I've helped many people -- including those who were actively in the process of dying -- with their death anxiety. Among other things, I've discovered that death anxiety tends to be more prevalent among younger people than older people. In this episode, I'll discuss why that might be the case and propose a method for coping with this type of anxiety by drawing on the wisdom of Greek mythology.