Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul Grant and Ellen Inverso about Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy (CT-R) . They provide an overview of Aaron Beck’s cognitive model both theoretically and in clinical practice. They discuss the power of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as an Evidence-Based Treatment (EBT) and why that’s important. They talk about whether one can use CBT techniques without conceptualizing. They discuss what CT-R is and how it has had an emphasis on treating the negative symptoms of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. They explain why they started with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and how the theoretical model integrates many aspects of humanism. They talk about the differences between CT-R and CBT-Psychosis (CBT-P). They also mentioned the empirical evidence and support for CT-R and how they continue to move forward in exploring other aspects of CT-R’s application.Dr. Paul M. Grant is a clinical psychologist and Co-Director of the Center for Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy (CT-R). For the past 20 years, Dr. Grant, along with Aaron T. Beck, MD, originated and advanced CT-R, which is a revolutionary evidence-based approach to treating severe mental health conditions. He has extensively researched and studied the theoretical basis and application of CT-R to individuals given a diagnosis of schizophrenia.  Ellen Inverso, PsyD, is Director of Clinical Training and Implementation at Beck Institute Center for Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy. She has a national reputation for advocacy and dissemination of CT-R. A co-developer of CT-R, she has created transformative CT-R programming for psychiatric inpatient units, programmatic residences, schools, and community teams, with special focus on adolescents and young adults, individuals engaging in extreme forms of self-injury, individuals considering transitions into the community following extended periods of institutionalization, and families. A licensed psychologist, Dr. Inverso supervises early career professionals in CT-R, guides her seasoned colleagues to add the approach to their armamentarium, and has co-authored curricula for training peer specialists and expert trainers in CT-R. Along with Dr. Aaron T. Beck and colleagues, she is co-author of the new book, Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy for Serious Mental Health Conditions, out through Guilford Press.You can find all of the info on CT-R here. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jeremy DeSilva about the importance of bipedalism. They discuss the evolutionary history of hominoids, hominins, and hominids. They talk about the earliest evolution of bipedalism in other species. They also discuss the importance of Lucy and Ardi and the differences and similarities between these two early Australopithecus. They talk about where Homo Erectus fits into the timeline and whether bipedalism was essential for human evolution. They engage about the elements of gait for different human species and the relevance for modern humans. They also talk about bipedalism and the aspects of birth, socialization, and many other topics. Jeremy DeSilva is a paleoanthropologist and Associate Professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College. He specializes in the locomotion of the first apes and early human ancestors. Specifically, he studies fossils of human ankles and feet to understand the evolution of bipedalism. His book, First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human is available here. You find him at his website and also on Twitter: @desilva_jerry Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Grace Lindsay about the computational approach that can be used to understand the brain. They discuss what computational neuroscience is and provide a brief overview and review of neuroanatomy. They talk about action potentials and the comparisons with an electrical circuit. They discuss the Hopfield Network as a way to understand various forms of memory in the brain, specifically within the hippocampus. They explain how early computer science research helped in creating a model for visual sequencing. They also discuss the future of computational neuroscience such as the Bayesian model, backpropagation, and many other topics. Grace Lindsay is a computational neuroscientist at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre/Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit University College London. She received her PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University. Her first book, Models of the Mind: How Physics, Engineering, and Mathematics Have Shaped Our Understanding of the Brain discusses many of the elements discussed in this episode. You can purchase that book here. You can find her at her website. Twitter: @neurograce Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Talia Welsh about feminism, existentialism, and the nature of work. They discuss feminist theory and ask if feminism adds a chapter to philosophy or should revolutionize the field? They talk about what to do with problematic artists and can one separate the art from the artist? They dialogue about defining womanhood, understanding masculinity and femininity, reforming masculinity, and reimagining the nuclear family in the 21st century. They also discuss an active life, a person's contributions to society, and redemption and forgivenessThe topic of work is something that Talia has been researching more recently.  They define work and its variants from a phenomenological perspective. They discuss differences between cognition and thinking, work as meaning, and how people attempt to find value and meaning in science. They also discuss religion, criticisms about organized religion, and many other topics. Talia Welsh has a PhD in philosophy and is currently a UC Foundation professor of Philosophy and Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She spends most of her research with Merleau-Ponty and has translated his lectures given at Sorbonne in the volume, Child Psychology & Pedagogy: The Sorbonne Lectures 1949-1952. You can find her work here.  Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with David Buss about evolutionary psychology and his new book on sexual deception, harassment, and assault. They discuss his background and how he founded and developed the field of evolutionary psychology. They have a broad discussion of sexual selection, sexual differences, and different mating strategies. They talk about his new book, When Men Behave Badly, and why there is mating conflict. They explore why men are responsible for darker, predatory behaviors and some of the variance among men. They discuss the dark triad of personality and the overall dark side of human nature. They also talk about the application and future directions of evolutionary psychology. David Buss is a psychologist and one of the founders of evolutionary psychology. He is a full professor of psychology at the University of Texas and is the head of the Individual Differences and Evolutionary Psychology area. He runs a lab researching human mating strategies which includes mate selection, mate retention, and mating emotions. He is the author of numerous books which include the main textbook for evolutionary psychology, Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind and his popular science book, The Evolution of Desire. His newest book, When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault, explores the themes discussed in this episode. You can find his scientific publications at his website. Twitter: @profdavidbuss Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Laura Wallace about source bias, trustworthiness, attitudes, and persuasion. They discuss what sources are and how bias is defined. They talk about perceived bias and its importance along with the spillover effect into other areas for a person. They mention the difference between biases and opinions. They discuss trustworthiness and some of the differences between perceived bias and perceived trustworthiness. They discuss the key component of perception as implicated in these concepts. They also talk about attitudes and attitude strength. They engage about attitudes being synonymous with opinions and how they impact certainty and persuasion along with many other topics. Laura Wallace has her PhD in Social Psychology from Ohio State University and is currently conducting research on source bias and persuasion at George Mason University. Her main research questions are how people change their minds, motivations for change, how people act on their beliefs, and how institutions promote progress. You can find her various scientific publications and other resources at her website. Twitter: @lauraewallace Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

Expert in phenomenology and philosophy, John Russon, delves into Hegel's philosophy on recognition and discusses its impact on Marxism. They then explore Heidegger's concepts of Dasein and worldhood, and Merleau-Ponty's views on perception and embodiment. The dialogue touches on authenticity, inauthenticity, and the phenomenology of space.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Manon Van Scheppingen about the most current research on marriage, divorce, and parenthood. They start with an overview of life transitions in young adulthood and what those transitions look like in a shared vs. a non-shared environment. They define personality and how various life transitions could possibly change personality. They provide an overview of Manon's self-esteem/motherhood paper and some of the data within this paper. They give an overview of Manon's divorce paper and some of the specifics of the results from that paper. They also talk about what life satisfaction looks like post-divorce and what the practical implications are of these studies. Manon Van Scheppingen holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Tilburg University in Tilburg, Netherlands. She is an Associate Professor at Tilburg University where she conducts research on personality. Specifically, she examines life transitions and major life events such as marriage, divorce, and parenthood. You can find the articles discussed in this episode here. Find her on Twitter: @mavscheppingen Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jessica Koehler about education, school choice, and school psychology. Jessica discusses her background and how she became involved with school psychology and how it led to her current work. They discuss the 5 different sub-domains of psychology and how school psychology fits within psychology. They talk about the heavy emphasis on diagnosing within a reactionary way for much of school psychology. They discuss the elements of school psychology and pressures to care for children. They also lay out the need and focus for preventive measures within schools as opposed to reactionary measures. They talk about the element of school choice and various alternative forms of learning. They also discuss homeschooling and some of the criticism it has received in previous years along with explaining psychology to the general public.Jessica Koehler holds a PhD in school psychology from the University of Maryland. She has research experience with school-based prevention, school teams, and teacher efficacy. She has been a school psychologist at various public school in various states. Currently, she has a variety of projects aimed at training and educating a wide-range of students of various ages. She is the founder of Koehler Academy and has a very active youtube channel that promotes continuing education. She also is a writer for Psychology Today. Twitter: @drjessica17 Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Alex Schnell about cognition, intelligence, and consciousness in cephalopods. They briefly discuss comparative psychology and its use alongside other fields. They discuss the evolutionary basics of cephalopods and some of the similarities and differences between the various species. They talk about the mating strategies of cuttlefish such as male fighting and female receptivity and the implications of the behaviors of cuttlefish on intelligence and cognition. They discuss her recent paper on cuttlefish passing a version of the marshmallow test and the importance of understanding self-gratification and self-control in cuttlefish. They also talk about consciousness in animal minds (specifically cephalopods) and implications of studying intelligence and cognition in other animals and many other topics. Alex Schnell holds a PhD in Behavioral Ecology and currently conducts research for the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. She has research experience in comparative psychology, marine biology, and evolutionary biology. Most of her research on various cephalopods can be found here and here. Twitter: @dr_alexschnell Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe