In this episode I try to provide some understanding of how and why so many people get depressed around Christmas time. I begin by noting that there are broad cultural and social issues here at stake, including the ways in which non-Christians can experience themselves as excluded and depressively relegated to the sidelines in a culture that, driven by the capitalist engine, literally floods us every day with commodities and the promise that if we purchase and consume these commodities we will be happy.

When we find ourselves crying at movies or when reading books and stories, it’s often at happy endings, not during the parts that are objectively sad.  The reason, it turns out, is that the unconscious mind regulates when and how we express and experience painful affects, and it does so according to its assessments of danger and safety.

The concept of “gaslighting” seems to be increasingly appearing in the media and public life.  In this webcast I discuss The meaning of gaslight and explain how exactly it works.

I offer some thoughts and, hopefully, understanding of a problem that some might think of as a “First World Problem”-- namely, the frequency with which things break down in our everyday life and our inability to get the proper and prompt help we need to fix them.