Psychologia Podcast

We may be living in strange times, but we can’t let Halloween pass without a spooky tale. We are bringing you the first story in our eerie new series, the Dreadnought Tales, named for a quarantine ship that housed the sick for four years off the coast of England in the early 19th century — but also as a reminder to us all not to dwell too much in fear. Psychologia presents “The Music of Erich Zann,” by H. P. Lovecraft. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

Tune in for a quick announcement about where we’ve been and why we’ll be on hiatus for a while longer. (HINT: Check out this episode's image!) --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

It’s the beginning of a new year, and we’ve been reflecting on the work we’ve put together and how the scripts and music weave themselves together. What we’ve never explored, however, is how the soundscapes relate to one another. This weird mixtape is an amalgamation of the sonic worlds of several episodes from the last three seasons. So find yourself a comfy chair in a quiet corner, lean back with your eyes closed, and be fully enveloped in the sounds of Psychologia. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

Innocent people are locked up and convicted of crimes more often than you may think. One of the most mysterious reasons this happens is that people confess to things they didn’t do. This may seem incomprehensible, but the fact is that law enforcement has gotten better and better at using psychological methods combined with false evidence to elicit confessions — even though many studies show that this method leads to false confessions. This deception is incredibly coercive, and, as we will see, wildly dangerous, both to the suspect and to the investigation itself.

On the morning of February 21st, 1933, a brand-new structure opened on the grounds of the Ontario Hospital in Penetanguishene. It was known as the “Criminal Insane Building,” although its official name would be Oak Ridge. It was designed as a maximum-security forensic mental healthcare unit for criminally insane men – many of whom were psychopaths – and the attempts to treat them would famously prove to do just the opposite. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

There are few topics that bring on as much emotional outrage and heated argument as the death penalty. It’s the kind of debate that divides friends, families and nations, and it falls on a short list of subjects about which nearly everyone has a strong, inflexible opinion. This episode will bring you some facts, some history and some research about the death penalty in the United States, and examine where we are now and how we got here. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

For this year’s annual Halloween story time, we bring you another horror classic with a psychological undercurrent, a touch of crime, and a name so famous that it is nearly synonymous with the horror genre. Psychologia presents “The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Allan Poe. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

February 2nd, 1933 was a frosty evening in Le Mans, France. When Monsieur René Lancelin got to his front door, he found it locked and dark. Neither his wife nor his daughter appeared to be home, but a dim light flickered in the maids’ attic room. He ran for the police, and the violent mystery of the events inside the house began to unfold, leading from a gruesome crime scene and a pair of disturbed sisters to a bizarre delusional disorder — folie à deux. Join us for the story of Christine and Léa Papin. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

How is it possible that huge groups of people can all fall ill or be incapacitated by a physical sickness no doctor can diagnose? How can hundreds of citizens across a city be moved to perform some odd repeated behavior for days or even weeks on end with no biological cause? Today’s episode will explore some famous instances of mass hysteria, and then try to answer just these questions. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

Before the second-wave feminist movement of the 1960s, psychological study was largely the study of (mostly white) men, by (mostly white) men. To say, however, that men have always been the only ones in the lab is a huge mistake. This episode is a tiny overview of four groundbreaking American psychologists – who just happen to have been women. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

Capgras Syndrome is a psychiatric disorder in which a person believes that people around them have been replaced with doubles. Sufferers of this condition truly think that the people they know and love are imposters. This episode breaks down this mysterious delusion to delve into its history, etiology, and whether or not it can be treated. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

A remastered version of our second-ever episode: Many people are familiar with the term "Satanic Panic," but most have no idea about the bizarre role that psychology played in the widespread mayhem that erupted in the 1980s and 90s. (The second part of our two-part false memory suite) --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

A remastered version of our first-ever episode: We rely on our memories to orient ourselves in time and space. But what if your memories are unreliable? Or worse, what if it is possible for someone else to implant false memories in your mind? (The first part of our two-part false memory suite) --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

The Old Tolbooth stood for over 400 years just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh and housed all manner of torture, torment, and even public execution. One of these deaths was that of a man whose bizarre and duplicitous life would become the inspiration for one of fiction’s most well-known horror stories, and whose hanging was the most well-attended in Scotland’s history. The man was Deacon William Brodie, but you may know him as “the real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

At first, there were 18 dead. All members of the Hmong tribe, all from a mountainous province of Laos. They fled their homeland at the end of the Vietnam War and made their way to the United States as refugees. They shared a difficult life – and they shared a terrifying death. Each of them was found in their beds, killed in their sleep by a mysterious affliction that looked like nothing at all. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

In honor of Halloween, this episode is a bit different. We’re reading a wonderful, chilling short story, a perfect combination of some of this podcast’s favorite subjects: psychology, feminism, and horror. Psychologia presents “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

Throughout history, there have been many mental illnesses that have spread widely only to disappear years later because they are problematic or discriminatory, laughable or preposterous, or simply no longer relevant. This episode explores six disorders that were once considered real threats to people’s sanity, but have now vanished from modern psychology. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

Psychopaths fascinate us. They commit extreme violence, but can mask it with a smile. They preying on the weakest among us, and take advantage of every situation to get what they want. They don’t seem to belong in society, and yet they often excel. But what is a psychopath? How do you recognize one and how do you diagnose one? Have you ever been in the presence of a psychopath? And, if you so, then what? --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

Once upon a time, women’s bodies were considered so mysterious and inexplicable that their wombs were believed to move around their bodies. The medical name for this condition was “hysteria,” and the cure for it was...a sex toy. Enter the strange and fantastical history of the vibrator. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com

There are many terrifying stories about the misery endured by patients in 19th century asylums, and while they seem too horrific to be true, the real history of psychiatric hospitals may be even worse than you imagine – and in some places, the nightmare is still happening today. --- Welcome to Psychologia, a scientific exploration of the strange and pathological. www.psychologiapodcast.com