The Psychonaut Show

What do Teddy bears and the Catholic Eucharist have in common? Why was Stan and Kyle's saving Imaginationland the most important thing they ever could do for South Park and the world?
Transitional Space is hard to describe, but we go searching from post-war London to avant-garde Lesbian comic strips, and find out how it is a crucial part of human experience.
In his paper, “Transitional Phenomena and Transitional Objects,” the British pediatrician and psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott described an “in-between” world, a psychological experience that is neither completely inside, in imagination, nor completely outside, in external reality. The Transitional Space is crucial for our developing healthy relationships with others and the ability to transform our play into satisfying work. It is also the place where art, religion, and even psychotherapy, take place.

What does Freud’s daughter have in common with Jesus and the Buddha? Why do the words “normal” and “should” signal treacherous waters as we steer through our inner worlds?

In this episode, we learn about the first, and most fundamental, of The Six Testaments of The Psychonaut, the principles that guide us through the mysterious regions of our unconscious. From loveless marriages to homophobia, the First Testament helps find our way to new solutions. Neutrality is about not judging, and we learn it is so basic; we even have to be nonjudgmental about being judgmental!

We turn from Melanie Klein to Anna Freud and hear her view on what it is to be nonjudgmental, learned from close observation of children in the War Nurseries. Anna Freud turned from a career in medicine to a career in education, at her father’s advice, and the field is the richer for that decision this remarkable woman made a century ago.

What does a bad break up have to do with immigration policy? Why is today's Superman less perfect but more "Super?" In this episode, we explore the Paranoid Position and the Depressed Position, ways that we have of managing our fears of being attacked, ideas about good and evil, and why sadness may be the key to resolving conflicts in both our personal lives and in our society as a whole.

What does dropping out of graduate school have to do with Goldilocks? How do you know when to "jump in the deep end," or wade in slowly? Even more difficult, how do you know when to push your kids or ease up? Optimal Frustration is a way to get out of this "either-or" thinking and create real growth. 

We find out what Viennese housewives have in common with the Democratic National Committee. We throw in a Guillermo del Torro reference and find out why those who forget the past are doomed to be haunted by it. The Return of the Repressed was described by Sigmund Freud in 1896, but this idea remains as useful, and even as revolutionary, 120 years later. Knowledge of this mental phenomenon can help us to end our battles with our own ghosts and demons once and for all.

"The Psychonaut Show" explores the dark and hidden parts of our minds.  Dr. JKB, psychiatrist, child specialist, and psychoanalyst, hosts the podcast whose mission is to find tools that will help us navigate these strange worlds inside each of us.