A young palm reader’s life changes when she accidentally encounters the man behind a series of brutal murders.
Like the Palm of your Hand is a story narrated from Josephine’s standpoint. The raised questions and the created gaps will be answered and filled next week when Tina’s standpoint will be revealed. Thank you ever so much for your support! Stay tuned and… Stay safe!
DISCLAIMER: This story contains strong language, and is intended for an older youth audience. Listener discretion is advised.
Based on my homonymous short script, Like the Palm of your Hand.
Tonight, Michelle Satchwell comes back once more with, as always intriguing information regarding Friday the 13th both as a day and as a film. Is it actually an unlucky day? Does it still have an impact on us and the society we live in? What is it that made it a great horror film back then and why is it still considered cult today?
References
Michelle’s book: Psychology Review: A-level Exam Skills and Practice Paperback – 30 Oct. 2020 ISBN-10: 1398308013
Baron-Cohen, S (2001). Theory of Mind in normal development and Autism. Department of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry, Cambridge.
Yuki, Metal (2007). Are the windows to the soul the same in East and West? Cultural differences in using the eyes and mouth as cues to recognise emotions in Japan and United States. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (43), pp 303 -311.
In-group and Out-group in Social Identity Theory (in reference to bullies); Tajfel, H (1979). Individuals and groups in psychology. British Journal of Social and Critical Psychology (18), pp 183 -190.
(Psychodynamic Approach in relation to the Mother-Son bond) Oedipus Complex in Phallic Stage of Psychosexual Development; Freud, S (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. Standard Edition (7), pp. 123 – 246. https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Freud_SE_Three_Essays_complete.pdf (Psychodynamic Approach in relation to the Mother-Son bond) Schizophrenogenic Mother; Fromm-Reichmann, F (1948) Notes on the development of treatment of schizophrenics by psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Psychiatry, 11(3), 263–273.
(Evolutionary Approach in relation to the Mother-Son bond) Bowlby, J. (1956). Mother-child separation. Mental Health and Infant Development, 1, 117 – 122.
(Evolutionary Approach in relation to the Mother-Son bond) Bowlby, J. (1944). Forty-four juvenile thieves: Their characters and home life. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 25(19-52), 107-127.
SOCIOLOGY SPECIFIC: Stephen: The murder that changed a nation. (2018). https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b0br42 (Three part documentary looking at institutional racism in the UK in the 1990s).
Announcement: This is the last podcast before summer. More interviews and horror stories are coming in September so, stay tuned for more. Thank you ever so much for your support, and look forward to meeting you all up soon! Have an amazing summer, and always… Stay safe!
Driving in the middle of the night, a man stops when he sees a woman sitting at the edge of a bridge, he sits with her and listens to her haunting and sinister story.
DISCLAIMER: This story contains strong language, and is intended for an older youth audience. Listener discretion is advised.
Based on my homonymous short script, On the Bridge.
Tonight, I created a short, yet concise episode about something that I was contemplating some time ago and published for the first time in The World of Apu online film magazine. As the episode’s title implies, it is regarding the pessimistic or even horrific view of our future.
A man’s family throws a surprise birthday party for him, not knowing that he suffers from a terminal illness.
This is an exception to my style of writing as, arguably, it has no horror elements. Yet, my aim was to explore a dark side of ours that is kept secret even from the closest to us people, even from ourselves. A horrific side that can be our scariest foe.
DISCLAIMER: This story contains strong language, and is intended for an older youth audience. Listener discretion is advised.
Based on my homonymous short script, Don’t You Shed A Tear.
Tonight, I’m releasing the second part of the interview with Michelle Satchwell. Michelle analyses Martyrs and its contribution to the horror genre but she also uses it as a reference for the role of women in torture horrors. Moreover, she talks about advertisements and gender roles in the 80s, and how females have been portrayed, could have been portrayed and how that has affected the present. Last but not least, she talks about the representation of ethnic minorities and non-binary people in the film industry and what potentially the future holds.
Feminism References Evolutionary Psychologists (no specific names), they focus on reproductive success in mate selection in humans.
Tuchman (1978) Symbolic annihilation (narrow range of roles for females).
Glascock (2001) Leading female characters (e.g. Lara Croft).
Bristol Fawcett Society (2008) Imbalance in media representation.
Ferguson (1983) Forever feminine; focusing on womens’ magazines and the cult of feminity. Women focus on “him, home and looking good (for him)”.
Johnson and Young (2002) Impact of advertising on children.
McRobbie and Garber (1976) Bedroom culture.
Heidensohn (1985) Social Control of women and crime.
Westwood (1999) Transgression and Gender. “Transgressive female roles that go beyond gendered expectations”.
Gauntlett (2008) The representation of gender roles in the media. “Do the traits of the characters challenge conventional masculinity?”
Julia Kristeva (1980) Powers of Horror: An essay on Abjection.
Freud (1905) Psychosexual stages of development (Pre-Oedpial stage).
Tonight, I’m interviewing Michelle Satchwell. Michelle is coming back on the show to talk about the role of women in horror films. Class, gender, and race will also be analysed as to how they have been portrayed over the decades and if and how nowadays things have changed. Michelle analyses classic female-led horror films through sociopolitical theories and practices, and sheds light on how psychology examines these filmic portrayals.
Tonight, I’m interviewing Dr. Neni Panourgia. Dr. Panourgia is Affiliated Faculty at the Program in Hellenic Studies. She is an anthropologist, Associate Professor at the Prison Education Program, Psychology Department, and Academic Adviser at the Justice in Education Initiative at Columbia University. Tonight, she is talking about the prison system in the US and how that has affected their current but also futuristic cinematic depiction. Without further ado, here’s the interview.
Tonight, I’m interviewing Aris Lanaridis. Aris is a film & media composer, sound designer and music producer. Tonight, he is talking about how music affects and enhances the suspense in horror films and what principles dictate how and what kind of music is used.
Tonight, I’m interviewing Pantelis Tsibiskakis. Pantelis was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. He studied languages and art both in the UK and the US. Tonight, he is talking about one of his favourite poets, and admittedly mine too, Edgar Allan Poe, his writings, the adaptations, his personal tribulations, but also his legacy.
Tonight, I’m interviewing Michelle Satchwell. Michelle, after shedding some new light on why kids are portrayed in certain ways in horror films, is coming back to talk about asylums and their portrayal in favourite, or not so favourite, horrors. The interview takes an interesting turn as she is pointing out that reality can be scarier than fiction as none of us is as free as we think we are. Regardless, the origins of asylums as the, arguably, scariest places a horror film can take place at is explained and so is the believability behind their projection.
Mental Health Act 1983 where people can be sectioned as “danger to self or others”.
Marie Jahoda (1958) “Ideal Mental Health” including six criteria; autonomy, self-actualisation, positive attitude to self, resistance to stress, accurate perception of reality, and environmental mastery.
Ethical guidelines originated from Nuremberg code (1947), later developed by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the British Psychological Society (BPS).
R.D Laing (1965) created a “safe heaven” for patients with Schizophrenia. This has been made into a film; Mad To Be Normal (2017).
Rosenhan (1973) carried out three experiments titled; ‘Insane in sane places’ of pseudo patients being diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
Both Laing and Rosenhan were part of the 1970s anti-psychiatry movement.
Thomas Szasz questions how mental health is defined and how it’s been ‘constructed’. In 1961, this was published as the “Myth of Mental Illness”. Then in 2011, released the “Myth of Mental Illness”, Revised 50 years later.
Valentine Douglas (2016) The CIA as organised crime. This covers “Project MK Ultra”.
Weindling (2016) looked at victims and survivors of Nazi human experiments.
The World Health Organisation (1977) said “no culture is free from Schizophrenia”. Shamanism and Schizophrenia similarities.
Taijin Kyofusho (TKS) as a Japanese culture bound phobia.
Individualist (independent) Western cultures versus Collectivist (interdependent) Eastern cultures can affect diagnoses and disorders.
Homophobia was seen as a mental health issue up until 1972 and DSM II edition (Diagnostic Statistical Manual reviewed by the APA). The depathologising of homosexuality; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4695779/
International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) was published in May 2019 and is used by the WHO in the UK and Europe. The Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM 5) published in May 2013 is used by the APA in America.
“Time to Talk” day in February and World Mental Health Awareness in October celebrate diversity and try to remove stigma. #HelloYellow campaign for young people to promote positive mental health.
Tonight, I’m interviewing Dr. Mathias Clasen. Mathias, among other things, is Associate Professor at Aarhus University, teaching at the School of Communication and Culture, director of Recreational Fear Lab, and Associate Editor of Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture. Literary Darwinism, Gothic, Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Apocalyptic and Post-apocalyptic Texts, but also Cognitive and Evolutionary Theory are only but a few of the research areas he specialises in. Tonight, he is talking to me about a very interesting research of his on the pandemic and horror films but also explains what it is that attracts us to the genre.
Tonight, I’m interviewing Rob Byrne. Mr. Byrne is a film restorer of silent films and is the President of the Board of San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFFS). Tonight, he is talking to me about the silent film era in regard to the horror genre. How were the films we today call ‘horror’ described as back then? How were they perceived? Were filmmakers aiming at psychological or gory horror? Find out how everything started.
Tonight, Erik Kristopher Myers (ekm) is talking about the roots of the found footage subgenre, its evolution, its contribution to the cinema, and its effects on society. Myers is a writer and filmmaker. His film Roulette (2013) won numerous festival trophies and his latest feature Butterfly Kisses (2018) shot to the top of the Amazon charts for New Release Fantasy, scoring rave reviews. Myers has also won numerous awards for screenwriting and editing, and among others, he has been a producer for XM Satellite Radio, a reporter for WTOP News, and film critic for The Dagger and Ain’t it Cool News.
Tonight, Dr. Michael Lee is talking about the horror inside us and why and how one’s inner certainties and anxieties can render the everyday person monstrous. Dr. Lee teaches courses on 20th-century music history, American music history, film music and film studies at the University of Oklahoma. Over the years, he has been teaching courses on the history of horror films and one of his many specialties is Vampire Cinema. He is music historian, loving horror movies with passion and began researching their film scores and their diversified styles, especially, from the 1930s and 1940s. Listen to how our perception affects the way we interpret horrors and what was Val Lewton’s contribution.
Ashley Scott Meyers is a writer, producer and director and owns the blog sellingyourscreenplay.com where you can find practical tips and advice on how to sell your screenplay. He also runs SYS Select where you can subscribe to receive premium screenwriting leads, online coaching and mentoring, online courses, and more. Among other things, tonight, he is talking about the production and artistic differences between indie and studio level horrors, their perception by both audience and directors and the importance of narrative in filmmaking.
Michelle Satchwell is Head of the Social Sciences Department at a large school in Derbyshire, UK. She analyses the use of kids in horror films and examines the genre through the prism of Evolutionary, Cognitive, Psychodynamic, and Social Psychology. She will definitely make you question yourselves why you feel the way you do when you watch a horror.
References:
Trypophobia – fear of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps, e.g. buttons, crumpets, sponges etc.
Evolutionary/Biological psychology
There’s not a named psychologist, but we tend to take Dawkins and apply to psychology.
Emamzadeh (2018) Origin of common fears: A review (Psychology Today)
Parapsychology
[ESP cards]
Utts (1991) Replication and meta-analysis in parapsychology.
Cognitive psychology
[Elizabeth Loftus pioneer in the field and expert witness in courts].
Loftus and Palmer (1974) Reconstruction of automobile destruction (I mentioned experiment 1).
Loftus and Pickerell (1995) Lost in the mall study.
Jean Piaget (1952) Assimilation and Accommodation in Schema theory.
Psychodynamic psychology
Sigmund Freud (1917) Introduction to psychoanalysis.
[Id, Ego, and Superego all part of the Tripartite model of the personality in our unconscious like an iceberg].
