Episode 11: Creating Conversation Spaces that Foster Curiosity and Participation
Welcome to We Interrupt, a podcast that explores the ins and outs of interruptions. In this episode, we talk with professor and clinical psychologist Michael Karson (michaelkarson.com) about personality and societal rules for what is deemed “acceptable” behavior – and how these are normalized, tested, and evolved over time. We discuss the use of performance as a means of exploring – and challenging- roles and rules, as well as the use of interruption in therapy and teaching contexts, as a means to create safe spaces that engender trust and caring.
Michael started practicing clinical psychologist over 40 years ago, specializing in open-ended individual and couple’s therapy grounded in humanistic/existential theory, behaviorism, systems theory, and cognitive behaviorism. After practicing for nearly 25 years, he became a tenured college professor, teaching in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of Denver for 20 years. He is the sole or senior author of six psychology books, three of them about therapy, and he has blogged for Psychology Today since 2013. He received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan in 1978, and I am a diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology (Clinical).
Links
Michael’s webpage: michaelkarson.com
More about the 16PF (16 primary factors) and MMPI behavioral assessments. Karson, M., Karson, S., & O'Dell, J.W. (1997). 16PF Interpretation in Clinical Practice: A guide to the Fifth Edition. Champaign, IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Testing.
Karson, M. C. (2008). Deadly therapy: Lessons in liveliness from theater and performance theory. Lanham, MD, USA: Jason Aronson.
Credits
We include a short clip from a documentary about Director Howard Hawks and how dialogue was constructed on His Girl Friday, a 1940 movie starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Segue music is Peaks by Bravenewstorm licensed from Tribe of Noise BV (Certificate number: 956ec9d5-c99f-48c5-b231-205e3a8a5546/27392), and intro/extro music is Bartok’s "Melody with Interruptions", played by Alan Huckleberry for The University of Iowa Piano Pedagogy Video Recording Project. The podcast image is a public domain image from rawpixel, Yellow-Red-Blue abstract painting by Wassily Kandinsky. Original public domain image from Wikipedia. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.
