Allusionist 138. Mind My Mind

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Crazy, insane, nuts, mad, bonkers, psycho, schizo, OCD - casual vocabulary is strewn with mental health terms, but perhaps shouldn't be? Psychotherapist and podcaster Lily Sloane talks about what we're really saying when we use such words.

Content note: in the second half of the show there is some mention of eating disorders. So if that’s not what you need to hear about today, tap out at the ad break.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL:

• Other relevant Allusionist episodes include: Behave, about how cognitive behavioural therapy works - and you can hear psychologist Jane Gregory on Keep Calm And, too; the origins of the term ‘gaslighting’ are in the 2016 Bonus episode; and in Toki Pona, we talk about big feelings, without actually being able to talk about big feelings.

• “I told almost every doctor who came into my room that I needed to be with my baby. The fact that no one else seemed to think that was important made me feel craziest of all.” One of many valuable pieces published this week related to Britney Spears’s predicament.

• Britney Spears's Conservatorship Is a Disability Rights Issue That Deserves More Attention.

• “If you think of the evolutionary circumstances of how our brains developed, and the kinds of things that would be particularly traumatic, animal attacks would be high on the list.” I thought this piece about a shark bite survivors’ club was really interesting, BUT if you’re scared of sharks or sea swimming, do not read it!

• Stop Telling Women They’re Crazy.

• This book by Andrew Scull, Madness In Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity, looks interesting - have any of you read it?

• The Anatomy Of Melancholy, the 400-year-old self help book.

Sign up to be a patron at patreon.com/allusionist by the end of June 2021, and I'll record the word or phrase of your choice to use as your phone alert or alarm! You’ll also get access to the recordings of all the words patrons choose, so lots for you to play with.

YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
fartlek

fartlek, noun, athletics: a system of training for distance runners in which the terrain and pace are continually varied. Origin 1940s from Swedish: ‘fart’ speed + ‘lek’ play. 

CREDITS:

• Lily Sloane is a therapist, podcaster and musician. Find her therapy practice at lilysloane.com; she accepts clients based in the state of California. Hear her music, and her podcasts A Therapist Walks Into A Bar and Radical Advice, at lilymakessound.com.

• This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com, listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch, and hear more of his composition on the science podcast for kids Maddie’s Sound Explorers.

• Find the show at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.

The Allusionist is an independent podcast. If you’re able and inclined to support the show, head over to patreon.com/allusionist.

Back in a couple of weeks with a new episode - HZ.

Our ad partner is Multitude. To sponsor an episode of the show, contact them at multitude.productions/ads. This episode of the Allusionist is sponsored by:

• Acorn TV, the streaming service featuring hundreds of dramas, mysteries and comedies from around the world. Try Acorn TV free for 30 days, by going to Acorn.TV and using my promo code allusionist. (Be sure to type that code in lower case.)
• Bombas, makers of the most comfortable socks in the history of feet - and super-smooth undies and T-shirts too. Shop their Pride collection and give a piece of clothing for each one you buy, PLUS get 20 percent off your first purchase at bombas.com/allusionist.
• BetterHelp, online therapy with licensed professional counsellors. Allusionist listeners get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/allusionist.

Pride playlist

Hello! Here’s a playlist of episodes of the show that are good to listen to for Pride month, but also at any time, because they are some of the most interesting and complex language matters that I’ve covered in the show:

Many Ways At Once. The Scots language didn’t have much of an LGBTQ+ lexicon. So writer and performer Dr Harry Josephine Giles decided to create one.

Polari was a secret language that was used mostly by gay men in London. And now lives on in the non-secret lexicon - you might not realise that you know some Polari words!

Two Or More is about the bumpy life of the word ‘bisexual’, describing things from oysters to space stations to God to hats and then people, where things get really complicated.

Name Changers features listeners telling the stories of why they changed their names - often a big feature of a gender journey.

There’s so much more to say about the word Queer, where it has been and where it is going now.

Survival: Bequest is about the Māori word ‘takatapui’, a bit of linguistic evidence that prior to the European colonisation that imposed cisgender monogamous heterosexuality, Māori culture had included myriad sexual orientations, gender fluidity and polyamory.

No Title is about making language gender-free. And there are unbeatable arguments to fell anyone who denies singular ‘they’, should you need those in your arsenal.

Joins is about how the available vocabulary for body parts can be a liability when you’re trans and/or non binary.

And Pride, about why the word ‘Pride’ was chosen to be the banner word for demonstrations and celebrations of LGBTQIA rights and culture.