Podcast Episode 131

with our guest Dean Burnett

Psycho-Logical: Why Mental Health Goes Wrong with Dr. Dean Burnett

Dr. Dean Burnett is the author of Psycho-Logical: Why Mental Health Goes Wrong – and How to Make Sense of It. His new book releases February 4, 2021 and is available as an Audible exclusive. Dean is a neuroscientist, lecturer, blogger, podcaster, comedian, and pundit science communicator. He draws from nearly 20 years of working in the areas of neuroscience, psychology and psychiatry. Born in South Wales in the UK, he earned his B.S. and his Ph.D in Neuroscience from Cardiff University. He is currently an honorary research associate at Cardiff Psychology School and a full-time author of the international bestseller ‘The Idiot Brain’.

Dean revisits with us today to discuss the science behind mental health and its treatments. We talk about what causes or contributes to depression, the concept of toxic positivity, the significance of social norms, and how it determines what is and isn’t considered mentally healthy. We also dive deeply into the plasticity of the human brain and how symptoms cannot be treated the same way for both mental and physical unwellness.

“It turns out emotions is one of the most confusing, confounding, naughty, thorny, vague, and nebulous subjects in neuroscience.”

“This denial of reality is where it becomes toxic. Someone’s going through a very, very bad time, a very hard time and they’re sad about it, or they’re angry, or they’re depressed about it. But that is a logical reaction to what’s happened to them.”