Freudian Sips

This week, the ‘mother-daughter’ part of this podcast becomes even more relevant as Anna and Bonnie talk about parenting styles. They explain the main four types of parenting — authoritarian, permissive, authoritative, and uninvolved — as well as a few bonus styles, like helicopter parenting. They talk about what kinds of parenting styles can really help or hurt kids, and along the way, they get kinda real about their own experiences as parent and child. So listen to this episode… because we...

This week, the gals are talking about the father of operant conditioning, BF Skinner. Since he was a pretty firm atheist who didn’t believe in all that ‘free will’ jazz, he theorized that a person’s behavior is trained by a series of rewards and punishments, and he made all sorts of boxes to prove it! He made boxes for rats, boxes for babies, just so many boxes. So turn up the volume on your podcast box and let Anna and Bonnie reward you with some knowledge! If you’d like to read more about...

Values. Goals. Meaning. It’s all part of the word cloud about ‘purpose’ that Anna and Bonnie are making to start off the new year. They talk a little about a lot of stuff, including how existential philosophy and Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy can help put our life meanings into perspective. Bonnie also gives Anna the Purpose in Life (PIL) test to see if Anna is in an existential void. So pop some champagne and settle in because the girls are back, baby! If you would like to take the PIL test...

You didn’t think the gals forgot Spooktober, did you? Well, buckle up for a bunch of tricks and treats, because this week, Anna and Bonnie are talking about weird brain glitches! Mostly silly and occasionally spooky, they talk about the sensory mix-ups of synesthesia, the disorienting feeling of deja vu, the strangeness of the uncanny valley, and many more perception errors we can experience in our everyday lives. Also, a note: this will be the last episode of 2022! The gals are taking some...

This week, Anna and Bonnie talk about the father of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Dr. Aaron Beck. As always, Anna talks about Aaron’s life and times, of which there are many, because this was a very busy man. They chat about CBT techniques that Beck created and even used on himself, along with how those were radically different than the Freudian stuff of the time. Then Bonnie talks about several of the assessments created by Aaron himself, including the Beck Depression Inventory.

Fighting through low energy and even lower focus, the girls try to talk this week about a few personality assessments. Bonnie talks about the Big Five test, which sorts personalities on five (duh) different qualities, like extraversion and neuroticism. Then Anna chats about the Thematic Apperception Test, where the test taker is asked to create a dramatic story based on a vague prompt, and hopefully that points us to all the things wrong in your brain! If you want to take the Big Five test...

Hot take, guys: music is pretty cool. This week, Bonnie and Anna unpack all the different ways music affects the brain, how it gives us lots of feel-good chemicals, and just generally how it improves our health, both mental and physical. They also talk about how music is an integral part of culture and evolution, and how we use it as a form of connection and a way to regulate our own emotions. Because it turns out, science has proven what the best genre of music is… and it’s whatever music...

Bonnie and Anna have this tangled ball of Christmas lights that someone left in their office, but it’s also emotions? This week, they’re chatting about adjustment disorder, a very general diagnosis that covers possibly too much, including crossing some confusing lines with grief. So Bonnie also gives us a run-down on that, talking about concepts like anticipatory and ambiguous grief and how big events (like, say, a worldwide pandemic) can cause those feelings.

This week, the gals are talking about Karen Horney, a Neo-Freudian who fought back against some of Freud’s wackier ideas and ended up influencing a lot of other theorists. First, Anna chats about Karen’s history and career — including how she was kicked out of the psychoanalysis boy’s club and started her own place. Next Bonnie talks theory, exploring the ten (and then later, three) different kinds of neuroses that Karen identified, along with her ideas about basic anxiety and how it all...

In light of the Depp v. Heard trial that’s making headlines, the gals are exploring some relevant personality disorders: borderline and histrionic. They chat about the diagnostic criteria for these disorders and do some comparing/contrasting to see how they might work together or contradict each other. They also talk about intimate partner violence and related trauma, especially how these disorders might affect that and how gendered norms can come into play.

Happy hundred episodes, Sipsters! Bonnie and Anna reflect on their three years (!) in podcasting and the hundred episodes since, including talking about some of their favorite episodes in the catalog. Then they revisit their main man, Sigmund Freud. Anna gives a short-ish recount of Freud’s history, and then the girls put their heads together to unpack some of his more prominent ideas and theories. Talking points include the psychosexual stages, the Oedipus and Elektra complexes, defense...

Armed with an extremely potent Starry Night shot, the girls are talking this week about Vincent van Gogh, perhaps one of the most famous artists of all time. Being a past art major and current fangirl, Anna tells the story of the artist’s life, including all the traumas and health struggles he experienced, and then she and Bonnie discuss what mental health struggles Vincent might have had. Hint: it was a lot, and you will probably want to give him a hug by the end of the episode.

Happy Valentine’s week! In honor of the holiday, Anna and Bonnie are talking about love, of course. Bonnie talks about the eight types of love from Ancient Greece, Anna chats about some of the wild brain stuff that happens when we feel love and attraction, and then the gals talk about various other studies and theories about how love works. So grab some chocolates in a heart-shaped box and settle in to listen, and remember: the gals from Freudian Sips love you a whole bunch!

Don't worry, Sipsters, this episode is NOT an auditory hallucination! Or is it? It's not, but Anna does have a cold, and Bonnie is on the moon! Figuratively. Physically she's sticking around to help Anna talk about schizophrenia, a particularly heavy diagnosis involving delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized behavior. Bonnie breaks down some stats about the disorder, how the media has misused the term, and how it’s treated, while Anna deep dives into the diagnosis itself to examine the...

To start off the new year, Anna is subjecting Bonnie to a quiz! First they talk about various personality tests and assessments they’ve already covered (and which episodes to listen to for more about them), then Bonnie takes her very own quiz to discover her MBTI type as well as a few other results. The gals use this as a chance to chat about where they’re both at in their results and what they mean, as well as giving some teasers about tests that might be covered in the future on the show.

For their final episode of 2021, and to follow up on their episode about narrative therapy, the gals are talking about role playing! They chat about role theory in sociology, how we each have roles in our own lives, how those roles might conflict, and how role playing is used in therapy contexts. Also, Anna chats about how tabletop roleplaying can be a healthy tool (because she’s a big ol’ nerd), and Bonnie talks about how some people use role play in the bedroom (because she’s a dirty bird).

Once upon a time, the gals wanted to talk about narrative therapy, a relatively new therapy that focuses on the client telling their personal stories and reauthoring them as a way to control their identities. So Anna and Bonnie got on their little microphones and chatted, including talking about the basics of narrative therapy, how it relates to other therapy modalities and arts, and how it can be applied even outside of counseling. And they all lived happily ever after!

This might be the gals’ spookiest episode yet! Anna and Bonnie are talking about exorcisms, the act of banishing a malevolent spirit or influence from the body. They chat about what an exorcism is, some historical and cultural contexts, and how mental or physical illnesses can be mistaken for demonic possession. Then, Bonnie talks about Dr. Richard Gallagher, a psychiatrist who consults on exorcisms, and Anna talks about the case of Anneliese Michel, a German woman whose death after almost...

Happy Spooktober, Sipsters! And what better way to kick off than to talk about the downright scary historical practice of lobotomies? Bonnie starts us off with a history of the lobotomy and some of the famous figures who developed the procedure, but she lets Anna get into the gory details of the different types of lobotomies and how they were performed. They also talk about some famous lobotomy cases, like Rosemary Kennedy, sister of John F. Kennedy. Warning, this one gets a little gross!...

Multiple personality disorder. Split personalities. Or, as it’s known nowadays, dissociative identity disorder. This week, the girls chat about this interesting diagnosis and how the brain tries to protect us from trauma. They also talk about some famous cases of people with multiple personalities, including Chris Sizemore and the Three Faces of Eve; Herschel Walker of Heisman trophy fame; and Kim Noble, the woman with 100 personalities.