Two Shrinks Pod

Ever find yourself getting anxious about talking to new people, avoiding speaking in work meetings or overanalysing something you’ve said? Then this episode is for you. We chat about practical ways to start to work on social anxiety - calming yourself, challenging your thoughts and experimenting with new skills.

To wrap up the show Amy has a bone to pick with critics of cryving (driving while crying) and Hunter rhapsodised over the appeal of simple desserts.

Clark’s cognitive model of social anxiety

Social anxiety resources:
Social awkwardness

International Handbook of Social Anxiety by Crozier & Alden

Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Phobia by Heimberg & Becker

Things we came across:
Don’t cry while you’re driving by Jeon

The commonness fallacy (predicting dessert choices) by Reit & Critcher

This episode, Amy and Hunter talk shit about the US elections. After a long, stressful week anxiously watching, we chat about how we’ve felt, our top gripes from the past 4 years & why it’s ok to let it all out.

We all need to talk, process, feel everything that’s going on right now - hear why it’s important to let loose before we can move on.

Art installation of Trump’s 20,000 lies: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/a-massive-mural-featuring-20-000-of-trumps-lies-has-been-installed-in-soho-102920

Rudy Giuliani at Four Seasons Total Landscaping: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/08/the-other-four-seasons-trump-team-holds-press-conference-at-suburban-garden-centre

For no reason we can think of (COVID, US elections, lockdowns, 2020…), lots of us are struggling with anger at the moment. This episode we take a practical look at anger to help you know when you’re feeling it & what to do when it crops up. We talk about why it’s helpful to understand your anger and some steps to calm down quicker when it does.

As always we wrap up with things we came across, this time looking at just how little intervention is needed to stop cheating & why Hunter is in desperate need of a holiday to the Swiss alps.

Info on anger:

A stress inoculation approach to anger management by Novaco
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED141673

A volcano in my tummy: helping children to handle anger by Pudney & Whitehouse
https://books.google.com.au/books/about/A_Volcano_in_My_Tummy.html?id=YF3xihsrvUwC

Starving the anger gremlin: A CBT workbook on anger management for young people by Collins-Donnelly
https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Starving_the_Anger_Gremlin/fHf2f2TBDmcC?hl=en&gbpv=0

TWCA:

Do real & imagined barriers reduce cheating? https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343256328_The_moral_barrier_effect_Real_and_imagined_barriers_can_reduce_cheating

Movie induced tourism
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10548400802092866

This week, in the wake of President Trump being diagnosed with COVID-19, the world has been going through a collective emotional experience. People who ordinarily wouldn’t relish in the misfortunes of others are feeling a pleasurable twinge of schadenfreude. We noticed people talking about how guilty they’ve felt so we wanted to pull apart this complex emotion in the two shrinks way: What is it? Why do we experience it? And is it really ok to feel like this?

As always, to wrap up we finish with Things We Came Across: why narcissists aren’t wearing masks and odd things that have happened in interviews.

We learnt about schadenfreude in:

• Schadenfreude: Understanding Pleasure at the Misfortune of Others: www.cambridge.org/9781107017504 

• The relationship between schadenfreude & sadism: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886916300071

• Schadenfreude & ingroup outgroup bias:
  http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~banaji/research/publications/articles/2017_Lehr_GPIR.pdf

• Integrating multiple perspectives on schadenfreude: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-012-9331-4

TWCA

Why narcissists aren’t wearing masks & how to approach them: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/narcissism-mask-covid-psychology/2020/09/25/d3de1b32-fe9c-11ea-9ceb-061d646d9c67_story.html 

Amy and Hunter were excited to be on Peter Wells’ podcast Meta, a podcast about podcasts. If you are a Two Shrinks fan and want to know more about how we go about producing the show, who listens and how we got started then head over to the Meta podcast feed (link below) and tune in to hear Peter grill us and perhaps act as a bit of a therapist towards us. Peter writes for the @theage and @smh newspapers about technology and podcasts and recently started Meta, where he is interviewing podcasters about the work they do. His first episode was with the Coronacast Team, the third with none other than former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. So we were very pleased to be amongst such great company.

Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/amy-donaldson-and-hunter-mulcare-two-shrinks-pod/id1530887036?i=1000492719906

Meta webpage:

https://pod.link/meta/episode/ODdiMmNmNTEtYzk5MC00MGViLWIwNTItZjlkMjJjN2YxOTZl

Autism, a fascinating, complex and controversial disorder. Join Amy and Hunter for an overview of Autism, or as it is currently known, Autism Spectrum Disorder. This episode should be a good one stop shop for giving you a) a description of the signs and symptoms of Autism, b) a history of how Autism and Aspergers Syndrome came to be recognised, c) a description about one of the main psychological theories to explain some of the challenges people with Autism have, and d) a discussion of myths about Autism. The episode wraps with Things We Came Across, Hunter discussing fainting in classical paintings while Amy tackles the influence of social anxiety on Pokemon Go behaviour.

This episode is pitched at a high level but should be accessible enough to learn about Autism and it is one of our longer shows because there is a lot to cover (and we didn’t even go into working with people with ASD). Autism is a really interesting topic for clinicians and students of psychology to study given it’s complexity and also the intersection of experimental social cognition research, advocacy, early intervention and the emerging neuro-divergent community and movement.

If there is anything you think we missed or would like us to cover about Autism then email us at [email protected].

Research & information:

Autism : A New Introduction to Psychological Theory and Current Debate by Francesca Happé , and Sue Fletcher-Watson

Vaccination and Autism (it doesn’t cause Autism) : https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/vaccination-and-autism.pdf

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th edn (DSM-5)

https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/special-reports/theories-of-autism/

The Metamorphosis of Autism by Bonnie Evans: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK436841/

TV shows & movies mentioned:

• Atypical

• Big Bang Theory

• Please Stand By

• Bones

• Rain man

• The IT crowd

Things we came across:

Fainting and painting: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0074774206740077

Personality & pokemon go: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886917307067

Head over to the School of Movies podcast feed to hear Amy and Hunter join Alex and Sharon Shaw discuss and reflect on Adam Elliot’s masterpiece Mary and Max.

It is a film about a decades long friendship between an Australian girl Mary living in Melbourne, and adult Max who has Asperger’s and lives in New York. We discuss depression, Asperger’s, loneliness, and how these are portrayed in this unique stop motion movie. It’s not always an easy watch but it is an accurate depiction of these conditions and listeners interested in Asperger’s and Autism will find it rewarding.

A film about the challenges of two people understanding a chaotic and confusing world seems very 2020.

Where to find School of movies

Podbean:

https://schoolofmovies.podbean.com/e/mary-and-max-1599814885/

Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/mary-and-max/id388751599?i=1000490894464

Twitter:

@schoolofmovies

Presenting the definitive discussion on the mental health of the Skywalker family. Its our 60th episode and for some fun we turned our minds to analysing the characters from Star Wars.

This is an episode for psych nerds and Star Wars fans alike. It is similar to our Harry Potter episode (#41) where we diagnosed the Hogwarts teachers with personality disorders.

We discuss in turn Rey, Kylo/Ben Solo, Luke and Leia. For each we cover what their attachment style is, what early maladaptive schemas they have, and if they meet criteria for a DSM-5 diagnosis.

What does that mean in non psych speak? It means we talk at length about each character’s personality, upbringing, motivation and what problems they are experiencing.

Because Hunter is a the bigger Star Wars fan Amy quizzes him 3 times on how deep his knowledge of the Star Wars Universe actually is, with some interesting results.

The end of the show wraps up with “The Therapist Rises” a psychological/therapy interpretation of the final trilogy. If you are a psychologist or training to be one you need to listen to the last 25 mins.

Any thoughts about the show? [email protected] or on twitter @twoshrinkspod

May the force be with you!

Ahead of our 60th episode “Diagnosing the Skywalkers: Mental Health in the Star Wars Universe” we decided to give you some pre-listening (reading?) to get you ready (hey don’t judge, we did do a lot of university study). Hunter covers a series of academic articles that discuss whether Anakin Skywalker has Borderline Personality (links below). This is a snippet from our 10th episode recorded way back in 2017 before The Last Jedi was released.

If you want to know more about Borderline Personality we covered symptoms and theory in Episode #25: (listen here through the website or apple podcasts); the treatment of BPD with Dialectical Behaviour Therapy in Episode #26 (website or apple podcasts) and the impact of BPD on family members in Episode #49
(website or apple podcasts)

See you in a couple of weeks to geek out on psychology & Star Wars!

Anakin Skywalker articles :

Part one - Bui et al. (2011) - Is Anakin Skywalker Suffering From Borderline Personality Disorder?

Part two - da Rocha et al. (2012) - Revisiting the Anakin Skywalker Diagnostic: Transcending the Diagnostic Criteria

Part three - Bui & Rodgers (2012) - Response to da Rocha et al.

Part four - Tobia et al. (2015) - Darth Vulcan? In support of Anakin Skywalker suffering from borderline personality disorder.

How are health care workers coping during COVID? On our final episode of the COVID series, we take a look at the issues facing healthcare workers. For the first time in many workers’ careers, we’re dealing with an issue that impacts everyone, including ourselves. Tune in for a discussion about issues like coping under crisis conditions, providing mental health treatment remotely, and what happens when your personal values or worries are different to those you treat.

As always, to wrap up we finish with a lighter chat about things we came across - what we’ll miss from lock down and how we knew we’d been in lock down too long.

Special thanks to the doctors who helped us prepare for this episode by sharing their experiences and concerns: Dr Eric Levi (@DrEricLevi), Dr Vyom Sharma (@drvyom), Dr Andy Tagg (@andrewjtagg) and Dr Lachie Hayes.