Freudian Sips

What do triangles, squiggles, and numerals one through nine have in common? They can all help you understand your personality better! This week, the gals are chatting about some personality tests. Bonnie talks about the psycho geometry test, where choosing a shape helps you know who you are, and Anna talks about the enneagram, a test that started in mysticism and now has SO many complexities. Be sure to take the tests for yourself before listening if you want to be unbiased in your results! THEN come back and listen to us!

Anna and Bonnie are FINALLY talking about Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund! The gals discuss Anna Freud’s history and childhood growing up with Sigmund as a father, especially how Anna was psychoanalyzed as a child and how growing up in this way may have affected Anna’s sexuality. They also chat about her own contributions to psychology, including her work with ego defense mechanisms and her focus on child psychology.

This week, the gals are finally going to tackle talking about autism spectrum disorder. Despite the name of the disorder, though, is it more of a sundae bar situation? Anna and Bonnie will explore this, as well as going over the possible causes, treatments, and history of the disorder. They’re also doing shots, so words are hard and Anna gets on her soapbox about stuff (exhibit A: VACCINES DON’T CAUSE AUTISM).

This episode has dogs! Specifically, therapy dogs and service dogs, so they’re on the job, so you can’t pet the dogs. Sorry for the clickbait. But really, Anna and Bonnie are talking about the positive effects animals can have on our mental health, and how this has made service animals much more common. Anna also talks about how to get an emotional support animal if you feel like it would be beneficial!

Since they are two Americans recording on the Fourth of July, Anna and Bonnie spend an episode talking about famous presidents with (alleged) mental illnesses. Including a disclaimer that these are NOT confirmed diagnosis but instead educated speculation, the gals chat about how mental health shaped several presidents’ lives and careers, such as Abraham Lincoln battling depression, Lyndon B. Johnson possibly having bipolar disorder, and several other figures that may have struggled during their terms. God bless (or just help) America!

This week, we finally add technical difficulties to our podcast résumé. It's been 65 episodes, so I guess it's about time. But while struggling with audio, the girls are also talking about Carl Rogers, the creator of person-centered therapy, a part of humanistic psychology. They chat about his history and life and how this affected his basis of counseling, which includes being genuine, empathetic, and congruent. What should you look for in a therapist? Is the "good life" a state of being or a journey? Do Anna and Bonnie try to summon Carl with a ouija board? Tune in to find out!

At the request of a Sipster (@CoiesQuestions on Twitter), the gals are chatting about what it’s like to love someone with a mental illness, especially depression. This includes ways to better support a struggling loved one, as well as how to stay supported if you are a caregiver. Special guest stars include SO MANY ANIMALS that kept making noises Anna couldn’t edit out, sorry about that.

Following an episode on bad self-esteem, the girls tackle the opposite: narcissism. Specifically, they talk about narcissistic personality disorder and how that can look in real life, especially in relationships, as well as what treatments might help someone with a narcissistic personality. This one gets into some heavy stuff, like gaslighting and some mentions of a certain orange president, so be warned!

This week, Anna and Bonnie are chatting about self-esteem, a frequent battleground in most people’s brains. They discuss the sources of how we see ourselves, what some famous psychologists have to say about the subject, how to work on negative self-esteem, and some other topics. So grab a drink, settle in to listen, and most importantly, remember that your girls believe in you!

You know those inkblot tests that psychiatrists in movies use to let you know they’re a psychiatrist? That’s a real thing! Inkblot tests were created by Hermann Rorschach (which is why they are also known as Rorschach tests), and this week, the gals are talking all about it. As usual, Anna gives the history of Hermann’s life, and Bonnie talks about the test itself. How many sex organs will the girls see in shapeless ink forms? Tune in to find out!

This week, Anna and Bonnie are talking about feral kids, or children raised in such isolation as to be animalistic. Specifically, Bonnie talks about the case of Genie Wiley, who was kept in neglect and isolation for thirteen years. They also chat about some fictional tales of feral kids, like Mowgli from The Jungle Book, as well as some other historical cases of children raised by various animals!

The gals have been avoiding this for too long; they’re talking about obsessive-compulsive disorder this week. To explain OCD, they break down both the obsessions AND the compulsions, and they accidentally end up self-disclosing way more than they expected. Turns out, they’ve been avoiding the OCD episode because they both have OCD tendencies. Who knew? (Anna and Bonnie knew. They knew.)

Anna (sans Bonnie) joins an amazing group of fellow mental health podcasters to talk about the current COVID-19 pandemic, how the insurance landscape is changing, what might stop access to mental health care, and other topics! Be sure to check out the other MH Avengers: Capes on the Couch, Guardians MH, PopPsych101, and Popcorn Psychology!

Or, Wacky Experiments Volume III! The gals are talking about two terrifically-named experiments this week. Bonnie tells us about the Monster Study, where orphans were emotionally abused to induce stuttering, and Anna talks about Operation Midnight Climax, part of the CIA’s Project MKUltra series of mind control experiments. And fittingly for some stories about bona fide Batman supervillains, this episode includes a promo for Capes on the Couch, another excellent podcast!

This week, the gals are talking about adrenaline and the role it plays in our fight and flight instincts. They also talk about how some people seek our these adrenaline rushes and how these people who are high sensation seekers may act differently than their low sensation seeking counterparts. Will Anna and Bonnie break their record for how many times they say the same thing at the same time? Tune in to find out!

Inspired by the Great Toilet Paper Crisis of 2020, Anna and Bonnie are chatting about mob mentality. To do this, they have to wade through things like pack bonding, evolution, emotional contagion, and lots more! They also talk about how mob mentality affected the Salem witch trials, and how we can about letting mob mentality get the best of us. Includes shout-outs to other great Freudian Sips episodes, as well as some other amazing podcasts like 10ish Podcast, Wine and Crime, and Necessary Bullshit!

This week, Anna and Bonnie are chatting about Viktor Frankl, creator of logotherapy. As always, Anna gives a history of Viktor’s life, including his stint in some concentration camps, and the Bonnie chats about the theories Viktor created, mainly how the search for meaning is essential to people’s lives. Listen in shock and awe as Bonnie creates another wonderful term while she and Anna struggle to stay at least three feet away from each other!

Amid all the pandemic panic, Anna and Bonnie are here to provide whatever information (and laughs) they can. Armed with quaran-tinis, they talk about the basics of coronavirus and COVID-19. how to help slow the spread, and how to stay positive and avoid some of the anxiety and panic that can come with things like pandemics, quarantine, and everything else around COVID-19. All information in this episode comes straight from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. All laughs come from the vodka in the quaran-tinis.

This week, the gals continue their discussion about attachment, which they started last week by talking about John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Now Anna and Bonnie are chatting about the four attachment styles, including how these styles are formed and how they look in us as we grow older. Apologies about any sniffles and snorts you might hear; Anna is a wee bit sickly, but she doesn’t have the coronavirus, she promises!

Anna and Bonnie are starting a more-than-one-parter about attachment, as in how we learn to relate to others through how we attach to our caregivers. In this installment, they’re talking about two pioneers of attachment theory, AKA the mother and father of attachment theory! Anna is talking about John Bowlby and his inability to write titles of books, and Bonnie is talking about Mary Ainsworth and her Strange Situation Procedure.