E8. Hallows, Haunts, & Scary Places: The Psychology of Halloween (p. 2)

FRESH from the Therapy Couch: Hallows, Haunts, & Scary Places: The Psychology of Halloween (p.2)

Psychotherapy Adventurers:  Gamer Girl Heather, Super Bookwork Sarah, & Squirrel Girl Debbie

Go to https://TherapyBites.myshopify.com & grab some A.R.T. LAB MERCH, specially designed to help keep this episode’s message “top of mind” in your life!  Don’t forget friends & family members who could use a mental boost too.

 

Show Summary:  In this episode . . .

TherapyBites Podcast is the home of the A.R.T. LAB which investigates, explores, & educates all about the neuroscience of Accurate, Realistic Thoughts & Life Affirming Beliefs.  

Today we tackle how the human brain “Geo-Tags” places as safe or unsafe.  

Have you experienced FEAR in response to a PLACE?  Perhaps you’ve been to a real-life HAUNTED house, HAUNTED forest, HAUNTED street, highway, byway?

But, is it really the SPACE “out there” that’s HAUNTED or the SPACE between our ears?  The dark recesses of the mind.

On today’s episode we discuss the neuropsychology of place-based fear and TERROR.  Join our curious band of psychotherapy adventurers on a journey into the darkness of Hallows, Haunts, & Scary Places as we autopsy what’s really going on in the depths of the human brain at Halloween.

Think of the brain as having many rooms, each with velcro walls.  Experiences are then stored in different ways in those rooms based upon how we decide to label them.  Labeling them as a risk or danger to us causes the brain to be more on the lookout for a repeat of those dangerous experiences.  If it LOOKS, SOUNDS, SMELLS similar to a former dangerous experience, then it must also - though different - be just as dangerous as the remembered former experience.  

The best strategy is COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING; deciding, based on EVIDENCE, what spaces & places are ACTUALLY threats to life & limb  Each of us get to decide what to velcro on the interior walls of our brains.  Velcro with care this Halloween!!!

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USEFUL REFERENCES:  

Camina E, Güell F. The Neuroanatomical, Neurophysiological and Psychological Basis of Memory: Current Models and Their Origins. Front Pharmacol. 2017 Jun 30;8:438. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2017.00438. PMID: 28713278; PMCID: PMC5491610.

Dagnall N, Drinkwater KG, O'Keeffe C, Ventola A, Laythe B, Jawer MA, Massullo B, Caputo GB, Houran J. Things That Go Bump in the Literature: An Environmental Appraisal of "Haunted Houses". Front Psychol. 2020 Jun 12;11:1328. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01328. PMID: 32595577; PMCID: PMC7304295.

Eichenbaum H, Yonelinas AP, Ranganath C. The medial temporal lobe and recognition memory. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2007;30:123-52. doi: 10.1146/annurev.neuro.30.051606.094328. PMID: 17417939; PMCID: PMC2064941.

 

FOR OUR READERS . . . GOBBLE UP THE WHOLE THING!!!  (Transcript): https://docs.google.com/document/d/17HQiqSdFkix7SDEgrKdRpw7mK-HGXzz-b4erMNWUOpA/edit?usp=sharing