Dark History of Psychology
This neurologist developed psychoanalysis and wrote extensively about dreams and the unconscious.
Sigmund Freud
This Michael Jackson hit features zombies dancing in its iconic music video.
Thriller
What Halloween "sculpture" is traditionally carved from a pumpkin and often features a frightening face?
Jack-o'-lantern
This sleep stage is strongly associated with vivid dreaming and rapid eye movements.
REM Sleep
This creature transforms from human to wolf, often during a full moon.
A werewolf
This controversial 1971 study assigned participants the roles of guards and prisoners.
The Stanford prison experiment
What is the name of the Halloween song by Ray Parker Jr. that asks, “Who you gonna call?”
Ghostbusters
This Edvard Munch painting features a figure clutching its face while appearing to scream beneath a fiery-looking sky.
The Scream
This phenomenon can make someone feel awake but temporarily unable to move, sometimes sensing a frightening presence.
Sleep Paralysis
In Greek mythology, this snake-haired Gorgon could turn people to stone with her gaze.
Medusa
Developed in the 1930s by Egas Moniz and popularized by Walter Freeman, this surgical procedure severed connections in the prefrontal cortex to treat mental disorders.
Lobotomy (or prefrontal leucotomy)
This Halloween song by Bobby “Boris” Pickett is named after a famous movie monster's dance.
The Monster Mash?
In medieval art, this figure is often depicted as a skeleton and symbolizes the inevitability of death.
Death/The Grim Reaper
What are people with Phasmophobia afraid of?
Ghosts
This legendary Irish spirit is known for wailing to warn that someone will die.
This historical practice involved drilling a hole into the skull, sometimes in attempts to treat illness or release evil spirits.
Trepanation
In music, this term describes a combination of notes that sounds tense, unstable, or unsettling.
Dissonance
Painted in 1893, this artwork by Edvard Munch shows a woman with long red hair embracing a man and leaning into his neck, famously titled after this blood-drinking Halloween creature.
Vampire
Located deep within the temporal lobe, this almond-shaped structure acts as the brain's alarm system, firing rapidly during threat detection, fear conditioning, and horror movie jump scares.
The Amygdala
Mary Shelley's gothic novel subtitled "The Modern Prometheus" features a creature created by this scientist.
Victor Frankenstein
Initiated during the Cold War, this secret CIA operation used psychological manipulation, sensory deprivation, and LSD to explore mind control.
Project MKUltra
Which composer wrote the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor, a dramatic organ piece often associated with haunted houses?
Johann Sebastian Bach
This Latin phrase and artistic motif, translating to "remember that you must die," uses skulls and extinguished candles to remind viewers of human mortality.
Memento Mori
This neurotransmitter is central to brain pathways often discussed in research on psychosis and hallucinations.
Dopamine
Originating in Slavic folklore, this supernatural creature is an old woman who lives in a hut that stands on chicken legs.
Baba Yaga