Voices, Hallucinations, Demons, Spirits & Psychotherapy | Alexey Tolchinsky

Licensed psychologist Alexey Tolchinsky (Psy.D.) joins me to discuss the mind's more unusual aspects, such as claims of demonic possession, hearing voices, hallucinations, and dissociated identities, to get a better naturalistic understanding of the complexities of human psychology.Learn about the different kinds of voices and hallucinations people can have, the line between normal and pathological psychological conditions, information people have received through voices in their heads, spirits in psychology, dissociation induced by drugs like ketamine, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and more...Timestamps: 00:00 Understanding Voices: Hallucinations vs. Delusions02:49 The Nature of Psychosis: Episodes vs. Disorders05:54 Defining Normal: Health vs. Pathology08:55 Voices as Insight: The Utility of Hallucinations11:40 Dreams and Hallucinations: The Mind's Inner Workings14:32 Dialogues with Voices: Exploring Schizophrenia17:26 Therapeutic Approaches: The Role of the Therapist20:28 Self-Diagnosis: The Patient's Perspective23:37 Spirituality and Psychopathology: Beyond the Naturalistic View30:13 Exploring Demonic Possession and Cultural Beliefs35:51 Understanding Trauma and Its Impact on Mental Health39:07 Dissociative Identity Disorder: An Overview44:03 The Spectrum of Dissociation54:16 Therapeutic Approaches to Dissociative DisordersFind Alexey: -Website: https://montgomerycountypsychologist.com/ -Dissociation paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1585315/full-Frank Putnam, Michael Levin and Alexey talk: https://youtu.be/o-0lj02cBPY?si=ttpm7T5R5Dy7TJvR-Michael Levin, Thomas Pollak and Alexey talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IhHJgGNBUcFind Jack • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694• X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft• Substack: https://substack.com/@jackroycroftsherry?utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-pageMore show notes:-Book we kept mentioning: "Finding Solid Ground: Overcoming Obstacles in Trauma Treatment" by Bethany L. Brand et al.-Mike Levin paper that motivated some questions in the discussion: "Robustness of the Mind-Body Interface: case studies of unconventional information flow in the multiscale living architecture" https://osf.io/preprints/osf/fqm7r_v1