The Danger of Critical Thinking – PsychPod Studio Podcast
Due to the move to this new website, we had issues with this episode last week. The issues should be fixed, so you will be able to listen to the podcast this week.
Welcome to the PsychPod Studio Podcast with Psychological Thriller Author M.E. Anders, where we chat weekly news and views. Merging fact and fiction into an infotainment-packed show.
Here we explore hot psychological topics from the perspective of a suspense and mind-altering thriller author. Popular topics include cult survivor tales, author interviews, psychological expert interviews, reader discussions, critical thinking skills, skepticism, freethinking, and religion.
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The Podcast Shownotes
Psych News: Daughters Have Brains - by the Love, Joy, and Feminism Blog
About the blogger of Love, Joy, and Feminism: She grew up in a family influenced by the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements. She was one of a dozen or so children, give or take one or two, and was homeschooled through high school. She was raised on the To Train Up a Child child training methods and was highly involved in right wing politics. She believed in courtship and in the importance of remaining “pure” until marriage. During college her life changed, and she left her parents’ beliefs. The process was painful, but she counts her life far more fulfilling today for having broken out of her parents’ ideology. Today, she is a feminist, a humanist, and a social democrat; additionally, she doesn’t believe in spanking and plans to send her daughter to public school.
In this article, she says:
“Of everything I have gone through with my parents, their denial of my ability to think for myself hurts the most. And what I really don’t understand is why they used to tell me that I was a critical, independent thinker back when I simply echoed everything my dad said. How was that being an independent thinker while this is not?”
Click here to read the rest of the article.
What I’m Reading?
Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment by Janet Heimlich I listened to a fascinating interview with the author on the Living After Faith podcast. Janet is an independent journalist, who was intrigued by this issue in religious circles.
What I’m Writing?
Book Three – Entendre – I am still in the middle of summarizing every scene into a lengthy synopsis. I add details, character descriptions, what’s happening in the scene, some bits of dialogue, and scenery. Each scene synopsis is about 25% of the word count contained in the final draft. Therefore, my synopsis is very thorough.
What I’m Watching?
Sunshine Cleaning – This movie was recommended to me by a crime scene cleanup speaker from my last Sisters in Crime writer’s meetup. It’s all about the biz of crime scene cleaning – joy, joy!
Reader Mailbag (Q & A):
Q: Which is worse about leaving a cult? The inner or outer battle?
A: Jeremy said, “This reminds me of the years of deprogramming I underwent. I remember it being so frustrating trying to articulate what exactly it was that was eating me alive. They had done such a thorough job of convincing me that they were right, and everybody else was wrong, that I couldn’t trust what anybody “in the world” had to say, because it was different than what “God’s anointed man, The Preacher,” said. Furthermore, nobody could understand the fear I constantly felt, that “God was gonna git me,” for my backsliding ways. I had nightmares almost constantly, and lived in a quiet panic that God was going to “take” my new daughter “home” to chastise me for my transgressions. I never slept at night, fearing she would stop breathing, most night sitting up in my rocking chair with her on my chest, just to keep the Angel of the Lord away. My wife was beyond horrified when I finally admitted what I was terrified of. Finally, after it seemed my head would explode, I stumbled upon the perfect counselor, Dr. Max Helton, ironically a man who had been the vice-president of the college I had attended where this damage had been inflicted. Fortunately, he had opened his eyes to the crazies and resigned and moved on, and he took me under his wing and began undoing the damage. He validated my every point of contention, and reassured me that I wasn’t crazy, just suffering massive post-traumatic stress. After hours of going over the junk floating around in my head, I finally began to eject so much of that toxic thinking and beliefs. I began to sleep at night, the constant nightmares of me trying to “escape out the barbed wire of ‘Stalag HAC’” diminished and finally disappeared. But without Max, I’m not sure I could have gone on, so great was my misery, the guilt, shame, and fear of “leaving God’s Perfect Will for my life.”
Daily Topic: The Dangers of Critical Thinking
In the podcast (above), I discuss the dangers of critical thinking to a cult’s propagation. If members begin to think for themselves, the spell of control is broken. Learn how sects transform the new convert into a recruiter for their dogma.
Next Week’s Topic: Do You Believe in Demons?
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Listeners: Have you ever heard of the Quiverfull movement? Do you believe that critical thinking is punished in fundamentalist groups?
My Related Posts:
My parents were very much a part of the quiverfull movement. They were so involved in it that, after they came on board, my mother had her tubes untied so that they could have more children.
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