Our culture and environment significantly impact mental health outcomes.
Understanding the evolved human mind fosters compassion towards self and others.
Recognizing and balancing archetypes promotes self-reflection and acceptance of internal complexities.
Deep dives
Understanding the Wick End University's Purpose
The Wick End University offers monthly lecture days featuring leading psychologists, authors, and university professors to make psychology lectures accessible to the public. The podcast provides in-depth interviews with speakers, discussing topics such as evolutionary approaches to psychopathology and the impact of culture on mental health.
Paul Gilbert's Compassion Focus Therapy
Professor Paul Gilbert, founder of compassion-focused therapy, discusses his recent book 'Living Like Crazy' focusing on the evolved nature of the human mind and how understanding it can enhance compassion towards oneself and others.
Evolutionary Basis of Psychological Behaviors
Paul Gilbert highlights the significance of evolved biology and social culture, emphasizing that an individual's social environment influences brain development and gene expression, showcasing the importance of humans as socially contextualized beings.
Psychology of Archetypes and Self-Reflection
The concept of archetypes, as discussed by Paul Gilbert, delves into how individuals innately process stimuli for meaning-making. Understanding archetypes within oneself, including the persona, shadow, and hero, encourages self-reflection and acceptance of complex internal potentials.
Cultivating Compassion and Balancing Archetypes
Practical advice is provided for cultivating compassion as a habitual practice and balancing inflated archetypes like the hero or persona. Recognizing the importance of integrating various aspects of oneself, individuation leads to a holistic understanding and acceptance of one's multidimensional nature.
Professor Paul Gilbert is the Founder of Compassion Focused Therapy and Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby. He has researched evolutionary approaches to psychopathology for over 35 years, with a special focus on shame and the treatment of shame based difficulties. He has written and edited 20 books and established the Compassionate Mind Foundation in 2006. He was awarded an OBE in March 2011.
This episode focuses on Paul’s most recent book: ‘Living Like Crazy’ (https://amzn.to/2IbIfJD ), which was published earlier this year.
In the interview we discuss some of the key themes of the book, including:
- The surprising effects our culture and environment can have on our mental health
- How understanding the evolved nature of the human mind can make you more compassionate; both towards yourself and others
- How to stop beating yourself up and develop a more compassionate self
- The psychology of archetypes, the dangers of inflation and how to avoid being manipulated by charismatic leaders
- Paul’s advice for aspiring psychologists
Buy the book: https://amzn.to/2IbIfJD
Learn more about the Compassionate Mind Foundation: https://compassionatemind.co.uk/
About The Weekend University:
The Weekend University aims to make the best psychology lectures available to the general public. To do this, we organise 'lecture days', once per month, where you get a full day of talks from leading psychologists, authors and university professors.
To keep updated on upcoming events, new lectures and podcasts, you can sign up for the mailing list at http://bit.ly/new-talks
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