Spooky Psyche
This pioneering psychologist was so obsessed with dreams and the unconscious that he analyzed his own dreams for years—and once claimed that all dreams are a form of wish fulfillment.
Who is Sigmund Freud?
Like a vampire feeding on your energy, this sneaky cognitive distortion involves replaying negative thoughts over and over until you’re emotionally drained.
What is rumination?
This spooky distortion is like having a cursed crystal ball—you assume you know what will happen, and it’s usually something awful.
What is catastrophizing (or fortune-telling)?
This “treat” involves giving yourself permission to feel what you feel without judgment—like saying, “It’s okay to not be okay” instead of bottling it up.
What is self-compassion?
This concept, rooted in both trauma therapy and neuroscience, describes the body’s natural ability to return to balance after stress—and is considered a key marker of resilience.
What is nervous system regulation (or autonomic flexibility)?
In this obedience experiment, participants were told to “shock” a stranger, showing how far people would go under authority—many believed they seriously harmed someone.
What is the Milgram experiment?
I talk a lot about your dreams, your slips of the tongue, and why you really want to marry your mom (allegedly). My couch is legendary, and I’ve got cigar smoke in my beard.
Who is Sigmund Freud?
In the 1940s, this disturbing set of psychological experiments involved placing baby monkeys with fake "mothers" made of cloth and wire, revealing the terrifying effects of social isolation.
Who is Harry Harlow?
This grounding skill can help you calm your inner werewolf during a panic attack—by naming 5 things you see, 4 you can touch, 3 you hear, 2 you smell, and 1 you taste.
What is the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique?
This ghostly thinking trap makes everything about you—even when it isn’t. Like assuming someone’s silence means they’re mad at you.
What is personalization?
This type of self-care involves facing your fears and setting limits—especially when saying “yes” to others feels easier than saying “no.”
What is setting boundaries?
This state, sometimes referred to as “functional freeze,” occurs when a person appears calm or compliant but is actually stuck in a chronic dorsal vagal response.
What is fawn response (or dorsal vagal override)?
This behaviorist made a baby fear a white rat—then didn’t bother to unlearn it—proving fears can be conditioned, but also raising eyebrows forever.
What is the Little Albert experiment?
I believe you’ve got a whole cast of archetypes inside you—including a shadow you try to ignore. I brought introversion, extroversion, and the collective unconscious to the party.
Who is Carl Jung?
Before talk therapy existed, this now-controversial practice was used as a "cure" for mental illness by removing parts of the brain—making zombies out of real people.
What is a lobotomy?
This emotional regulation technique from DBT involves acting opposite to your overwhelming urges—like going to a support group instead of isolating.
What is opposite action?
This haunting habit makes you filter out the positives and only focus on what went wrong, like a brain stuck in a cobweb of negativity.
What is mental filtering?
This DBT-informed practice encourages indulging in healthy pleasures like a warm shower, music, or good food—not as avoidance, but to soothe the senses.
What is self-soothing?
Coined by Stephen Porges, this theory explains how our nervous system constantly scans for safety or threat—even without conscious thought.
What is Polyvagal Theory?
This infamous government project tried to explore mind control and “truth serums” using drugs like LSD, hypnosis, and total sensory deprivation.
What is Project MK-Ultra?
I believed even babies had rich emotional lives and that play reveals the unconscious. My work with object relations helped us understand how early bonds shape adult ghosts.
Who is Melanie Klein?
This term describes when someone can’t recognize their own reflection—and it’s been linked to severe dissociation and neurological disorders
What is mirror agnosia (or Capgras syndrome, depending on interpretation)?
This inner “monster” whispers all-or-nothing thoughts and catastrophic predictions, but challenging it with evidence is how CBT recommends taming its power.
What is a cognitive distortion (or automatic negative thought)?
This type of thinking involves labeling yourself with negative names like “loser” or “idiot,” turning a single mistake into your entire identity.
What is labeling (or global labeling)?
This sneaky “trick” involves caring for others so much that you forget your own needs—often rooted in fear of abandonment or self-worth issues.
What is people-pleasing (or codependency)?
This trauma response happens when the brain senses no escape and activates shutdown mode, often leaving someone feeling foggy, numb, or disconnected.
What is dissociation?
This 1950s study isolated monkeys from their mothers in steel chambers, creating what researchers themselves called the “pit of despair.”
What is Harry Harlow’s isolation chamber (or pit of despair experiment)?
I’m the original stress scientist. In the 1930s, I introduced a 3-stage model explaining how your body reacts to chronic stress — from the alarm bells, to resistance, and finally... exhaustion, if you don’t recover. People say I made stress science spooky before it was cool.
Who is Han Selye?
In a bizarre chapter of psychological history, this 20th-century behaviorist raised his own son in what he called an “air crib,” leading to rumors (later disproven) that the child became psychotic.
Who is B.F. Skinner?
This complex Jungian idea describes the part of ourselves we repress or deny—yet it often shows up in intense reactions to others. It’s the monster we must meet to heal.
What is the shadow?
This distorted style of mind reading assumes others are thinking badly of you—without any evidence—and often fuels anxiety and shame.
What is mind reading?
This treat-yourself tool involves identifying your values and aligning actions with them—so you’re not just reacting to life’s chaos but living with intention.
What is values-based living (or committed action, from ACT)?
This somatic-focused therapy skill involves tuning in to body sensations like tightness or tingling, often used to release stored trauma or regulate emotions.
What is interoception (or somatic tracking)?
This controversial “twin study” secretly separated identical siblings at birth to study nature vs. nurture—without telling the children or their adoptive families.
What is the Louise Wise Services twin study (or “Three Identical Strangers” study)?
This trauma expert literally wrote the book on how the body holds trauma—arguing that healing requires body-based interventions, not just talk therapy.
Who is Bessel van der Kolk?
In the 1800s, this now-obsolete diagnosis was often used to label women as “hysterical” for expressing emotion—and was treated with everything from cold baths to institutionalization.
What is female hysteria?
Opens up reflection on gender biases in mental health, the pathologizing of emotions, and how stigma can still “haunt” modern diagnoses.
This term describes the overwhelming storm of emotional and physiological reactions triggered by a present situation that echoes a past trauma—like an invisible monster dragging you back in time.
What is a trauma trigger (or emotional flashback)?
This spooky-sounding distortion combines catastrophizing and helplessness by believing that no matter what you do, nothing will change—often rooted in early trauma or repeated failure.
What is learned helplessness?
This advanced self-care concept asks you to become the nurturing inner voice you needed growing up—taming your inner critic by re-parenting yourself.
What is inner child work (or self-reparenting)?
This trauma-informed theory explains how chronic stress reshapes the brain-body connection, often locking people into survival responses long after the danger has passed.
What is the Window of Tolerance model (or Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics)?
In this lesser-known but disturbing 1939 study, dubbed the "Monster Study," researchers tried to induce stuttering in orphans by using shame-based speech correction.
What is the Monster Study?
A neuroscientist turned trauma theorist, he created Polyvagal Theory, revealing how the vagus nerve controls your sense of safety, shutdown, or social connection.
Who is Stephen Porges?