Discovering a most excellent new podcast series is like taking a nice warm bath in psychoanalytical theses. As this is what Ordinary Unhappiness is all about.
Think of it is a more analytical companion to You’re Wrong About, with expert insights on psychoanalysis (complemented by dollops of pop culture, politics, and stuff).
Hosted by academics Abby Kluchin and Patrick Blanchfield, listening this will help you understand your brain and feelings more. That’s a good thing. 👍
Listen and Learn in Ordinary Unhappiness
“Much will be gained if we succeed in transforming your hysterical misery into common unhappiness. With a mental life that has been restored to health, you will be better armed against that unhappiness.”
That’s Freud’s musings above. We think what he means is you must have unhappiness in your life. It’s inevitable, but equip yourself to deal with it and out of that can come some level of excellence.
Our first entry into this world was with the most recent episode. This is On Hate and Aggression (Part 1), which is fairly prevalent to world events right now, eh? This is the episode outline.
“Abby, Patrick, and Dan take up a topic that couldn’t be more relevant to the contemporary zeitgeist – aggression – as theorized by an unlikely source: the British analyst and pediatrician D.W. Winnicott. What did this beloved and famously gentle figure have to say about aggression, and our taboos and fantasies surrounding it? Where does aggression come from, and what is its function developmentally?”
You can listen to this on YouTube, too, for free! Although you can become a subscriber to unlock extra episodes and insights.
You’ll learn a lot about the human condition—that’s why we love this podcast. As ignorance, lies, and ridiculous conspiracy theories take over much of the western media, we like to find actual experts dishing out evidence driven insights (alongside intelligent theorising).
That’s what Ordinary Unhappiness provides, ironically guiding you to some peace of mind along the way.
The show does cover a lot of ground we’re unfamiliar with and this may be the same for you. The hosts do explain their way around concepts well, although do sometimes make the assumption listeners will be schooled in the subject matter. However, they do provide excellent reading recommendations for you to pursue if a topic is of interest.
In amongst stuff about psychosocial realism, and jokey topics such as The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, you’ll find cunning wordplay on gerontocracy (“gerontophallocracy”).
With events right now in America, politics is a continuous hot topic (we guess steer clear from listening if you get hysterical about reasonable debate).
Plus, there’s other stuff like awesome insights into the bizarre world of conspiracy theories. Here’s an overview of the episode below.
“If a ‘conspiracy theory’ suggests a general way of knowing, an outlook on the world and events, what satisfactions does that provide – both for conspiracy ‘theorists’ and those who marginalize them? Of what do today’s conspiracy theories suggest themselves to be symptoms? And how can we productively understand both the appeals and pitfalls of conspiratorial thinking in our own moment, for better and for worse?”
And the episode! Or is it!?!?! How do we know it IS the episode and not a FAKE one!? Think, people!
Ordinary Unhappiness is a very insightful and clever podcast delivered by accomplished people who really know their stuff. Although it covers weighty topics with frequent dark undertones on the nature of the human experience, there are light asides, dashes of humour, and it’s all so educational. We like!
Got a phone? You can follow and get listening right away.
