Shrinking America

Send us Fan MailWelcome to Shrinking America…this time, for real. This episode, recorded in January before any of our other content, dives into a conversation about what got us going on a podcast, who we are as individuals, friends, psychiatrists and as Americans, and demonstrates a bit of how conversation flows so often in long-term therapy. The distillation? Kyle captures it with “seeking to understand what is happening in our country in this moment through a biopsychosocial and dare I say philosophical lens.”Deeper Learning Points🧰 Defenses: Intellectualization: “Anna Freud defined these defense mechanisms as ‘unconscious resources used by the ego’ to decrease internal stress.” Basically, they’re things our brain does fairly automatically to help us cope with life.The speed of modern life and how this is all probably too much🧰 Erikson Stages are a useful construct for understanding different phases of life and what we seek to accomplish, in the world and internally, in each eraThe Savior Complex is what it sounds like…a tendency, to varying degrees, to help or try to save others, sometimes too much, often because you get something from it tooVulnerabilityThe Power of Vulnerability by Brené BrownCreativity: The process of creating and of appreciating the creations of others are both deeply human and deeply therapeutic. We didn’t discuss it beforehand, but ending our episode with a poem felt like a spontaneous moment of feeling into the power of art to define the human experience.Ranier Maria Rilke, “Live the questions now”“Big 5” : We talked about the Introvert/Extrovert divide that makes up part of the "five-factor model" of personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. If you don't know where you fall on these scales, taking an online test can be a fun way to get to know yourself a bit better. Quiet by Susan CainBrian Little and personalityCulture and Introversion: Country by country, even state by state, this differsThe Enneagram is another one of many tools for personality exploration (just like the “Big 5”). These tools certainly aren’t the only way to understand ourselves (if you prefer astrology, that’s alright too); but  they can provide a useful jumping off point for introspection.Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow"🧰 Rupture and repair is a core theme in human development and long-term therapy; this quote captures the concept nicely: “Rupture and repair are key ingredients to connection. When ruptures in relationships occur, which they will, it is important to revisit the situation to work on restoring safety, regulation, attunement, and understanding. Through engaging in this process and providing consistent secure base and safe haven supports, conflicts have the opportunity to heal.”

Send us Fan MailWelcome to Episode 0.125. It’s an impromptu addition to our prequel series, where we decided to turn the psychiatric lens on ourselves. We noticed in our text thread we were all having interesting reactions about finally putting our work out into the world, and the only logical next step was to put ourselves on the couch and let the shrinking begin. This process brought up some interesting themes around narcissism, imposter syndrome, and inadequacy. Yes, shrinks work through all of that too. So, join us as we explore our thoughts and feelings surrounding the soft launch, in real time. Because in psychiatry, it's all grist for the mill, and sometimes we also need our own time on the couch.Deeper Learning Points“Grist for the Mill”A metaphor for therapeutic material coined by therapy giant Dr. Irvin YalomOverton Effect: A thing we plan to trademark🧰 Overview Effect: A repeat from episode 0Overton WindowPer Wikipedia, “The Overton window is the range of subjects and arguments politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time”Self-disclosureSelf disclosure refers to how much we reveal about ourselves to our patients. We try to be intentional about it as the therapeutic setting is a unique environment and relationship wherein the exploration of the psyche is inherently more one-sided. Historically, therapists were supposed to be a “blank slate“, but even Freud let his patients into his personal life at times, and it is important for us to consider when this may or may not be therapeutic, and what the risks and benefits of self disclosure may be.A major premise of the show Shrinking is exploring the different perspectives that the therapist characters have on self disclosure and just how rigid or permeable our boundaries can and should be.Imposter SyndromeSome people are immune :)🧰 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy/Values🧰 Healthy NarcissismWe’re fans of the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy podcast, and they do a nice episode on healthy narcissism, to include its adaptive aspectsPositive stress (“Eustress”)Freud’s psychoanalytic approachThere’s a lot to cover with Freud, including the concepts of transference/countertransference, which we refer to in the episodeLoneliness Epidemic: The surgeon general declared this a public health issue in 2023Community Episode: We’re planning this for episode 4, released August 5th!🧰 Internal Family Systems (IFS) / “parts theory”🧰 Humor as DefenseOpus No. 1

Send us Fan Mail

Send us Fan MailWe've been chipping away at this podcast for a while — balancing our collective perfectionism with a "good enough" energy, finding time in chaotic millennial midlife to meet, laugh, and record together on an almost weekly basis. When Artemis II launched, we couldn't help ourselves. Turns out when your co-hosts include a former military pilot, a Navy flight surgeon, and someone who applied to the astronaut program — twice — space is never really far from the conversation. Kyle, our closest brush with NASA, got us going on a conversation that covers a lot of range. So since this felt time sensitive, and because it was finally time to take one small step, we're doing a soft launch before we get fully underway in June (June 24th, to be specific). And why May the 4th? Come on. Space, exploration, the hero's journey, daddy issues...too good to pass up. Join us for a slightly rambling conversation about space, exploration, and what it means to reach for something.For Deeper Exploration...🧰 Toolkit Item: Hawthorne Effect🧰 Toolkit Item: The Overview EffectEarthscape VRAstronaut ProfilesChristina Koch Overview Video 1and Overview Video 2NASA: The Overview EffectThe Pale Blue DotThe Science of Astronaut WellbeingAnd also The Burden of Space Exploration on the Mental Health of AstronautsThe Hero ArchetypeHow mythologist Joseph Campbell made Luke Skywalker a hero“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” - Joseph Campbell“We need a great rebirth of the heroic in our world. Every sector of human society, wherever that may be on the planet, seems to be slipping into an unconscious chaos. Only the heroic consciousness, exerting all its might, will be able to stop this slide toward oblivion. Only a massive rebirth of courage in both men and women will rescue the world.” – Moore and Gillette🧰 Toolkit Item: Cognitive DissonanceCognitive Dissonance, More DetailThe Drive for Discovery/ExplorationWe hadn’t read it before we recorded, but this article captures so much of what we discussed–the drive for exploration and the cost, shooting for  the stars versus grounding on earth and solving the problems here, knowing what really matters in life: “Billionaire space race: the ultimate symbol of capitalism’s flawed obsession with growth”