For several years in my late teens and early twenties I used to wake in the middle of the night, gripped by the chilling certainty that a vast, shadowy wolf had materialised in my room. It would prowl back and forth at the foot of my bed before pouncing, pinning me down as it snarled in my face. Terrified, paralysed, unable to cry out, I would fight desperately to push it away.

In this second episode of Thinking Psychologically, these strange and dreadful nocturnal experiences act as inspiration as we set out to formulate a working model of the human mind.

Drawing on our evolutionary history, neuroscience, and human development, we gradually build a picture of the hidden psychological life that exists beyond conscious awareness - and consider what it might mean to approach that hidden life with curiosity.

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Music credit

Music used in this episode is drawn from the royalty-free work of PaulYudin. Many thanks for making this music freely available for creators.

Tattoos have accompanied human beings for thousands of years. But why do we do it? Why willingly endure pain and permanently mark our bodies?

In this first episode of Thinking Psychologically, we explore tattoos through a psychological lens, considering the various functions they may serve in our psychological lives.

Along the way, the discussion touches on:

• Permanence, impermanence, and existential questions of mortality
• Belonging, conformity, and the human need for connection
• Transgression, individuation, and becoming more fully oneself
• Trauma, bodily autonomy, and reclaiming the body
• Carl Jung, symbolism, and the unconscious

The episode does not attempt to explain what any particular tattoo means. Instead, it asks a broader question:

Is a tattoo ever just a tattoo?

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Music credit

Music used in this episode is drawn from the royalty-free work of PaulYudin. Many thanks for making this music freely available for creators.