SERIES

States of Mind

19831 Season

Documentary

Your rating

Genre: Documentary
Origin: GB

About

Series of programmes about psychology, in which Jonathan Miller talks to eminent psychologists about their theories and beliefs.

Where to watch

Region

Not available to stream in United States yet.

Details

Status: Ended
First aired: Feb 20, 1983
Network: BBC Two
Studio: BBC

Time to finish

11 hrs

15 episodes. About 2 weeks at an hour a night.

Cast

Jonathan Miller

Self - Presenter

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SERIES

States of Mind

19831 Season

Documentary

Your rating

Genre: Documentary
Origin: GB

About

Series of programmes about psychology, in which Jonathan Miller talks to eminent psychologists about their theories and beliefs.

Where to watch

Region

Not available to stream in United States yet.

Episodes

0 of 0 watched

E1 · Airs Feb 20, 1983
George Miller
Professor George Miller, from Princeton University, explains what psychology is, what psychologists do, and the importance of the Second World War to the study of human behaviour.
E2 · Airs Feb 27, 1983
Jerome Bruner
Professor Jerome Bruner, from the New School for Social Research in New York, explains how the study of the 'mind', once a dirty word in psychology, has revolutionised the exploration of our mental lives. He also discusses insights into the growth of the infant mind and describes some of his own work with children.
E3 · Airs Mar 6, 1983
Richard Gregory
Until the present century vision was often regarded as a simple process - the eyes provide the brain with pictures of the outside world, and the brain just looks at them. We now know that visual perception is one of the most complicated functions that the human brain performs. Professor Richard Gregory, from the University of Bristol, shows how the study of illusions has demonstrated how much of what we see ' out there' is actually generated from within.
E4 · Airs Mar 13, 1983
Daniel Dennett
Until recently psychologists shunned questions about the philosophy of 'mind' in the belief that they were tedious and unanswerable. Professor Daniel Dennett , from Tufts University in Boston, describes how the study of computers and artificial intelligence has helped philosophy and psychology to enjoy a more fruitful relationship.
E5 · Airs Mar 20, 1983
Stuart Hampshire
One of Sigmund Freud's most important contributions to psychology was the notion of an unconscious mind which can guide our behaviour in curious and unexpected ways. This has not only given rise to a whole new branch of psychiatric treatment - psychoanalysis - but has transformed the way in which people think about .themselves and their actions. Stuart Hampshire, Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, discusses the significance of Freud's 'discovery'.
E6 · Airs Mar 27, 1983
Jerome Fodor
In the 18th century it was assumed that the mind was 'transparent to itself '- that everything occurring in the brain was available to conscious thought. This idea seemed much less plausible after Freud introduced the notion of an unconscious mind housing 'dangerous' thoughts and desires. Modern psychology, though, has introduced another picture of unconscious mental processes, which has nothing to do with conflict, guilt or repression, but without which it is almost impossible to account for some of our distinctively human abilities, such as language. Professor Jerome Fodor, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, discusses how this other non-Freudian unconscious might be organised, and how it relates to our conscious thinking.
E7 · Airs Apr 3, 1983
Norman Geschwind
Information not available.
E8 · Airs Apr 16, 1983
George Mandler
For most people the expression of such feelings as fear, anger, jealousy or love forms an important part of human life. It is now recognised that psychologists have paid little attention to these fundamental human experiences. George Mandler, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, offers a new approach to the understanding of the emotions.
E9 · Airs Apr 23, 1983
Rom Harré
The most publicised work in understanding human social behaviour in recent years has been the 'naked ape' approach which attempts to explain our dealings with each other in terms of how animals behave in groups. Rom Harré, Fellow of Linacre College, Oxford, takes a different view and stresses the more distinctively human aspects of our social lives.
E10 · Airs Apr 30, 1983
Robert Hinde
Robert Hinde has spent most of his academic life at Cambridge studying the behaviour of birds and monkeys. More recently he has turned his attention to the more complex issue of human relationships. In this programme Professor Hinde, who remembers teaching Jonathan Miller in the early 1950s, explains why there has been this change of emphasis in his work.
E11 · Airs May 7, 1983
Clifford Geertz
In Victorian times armchair anthropologists regarded tribal man as a fossilised remnant of our primitive ancestors. Clifford Geertz, Professor of Social Science at Princeton, who has done extensive field work in Indonesia and Morocco, explains why he thinks that the magical rites of pre-literate people express a different, but by no means primitive, attitude to the world around them.
E12 · Airs May 14, 1983
Ernst Gombrich
The act of painting a scene is normally imagined to be an exercise in manual dexterity. There is, however, a great deal more to drawing or painting than the simple 'copying' of a visual image on to paper or canvas. Sir Ernst Gombrich, author of Art and Illusion, has spent his life exploring the psychological processes which underlie the making of pictures.
E13 · Airs May 21, 1983
B. A. Farrell
The work of psychologist Sigmund Freud forms the basis of psychoanalysis, but his ideas have also profoundly altered the way we account for our own everyday behaviour and the behaviour of others. Brian Farrell, Reader in Mental Philosophy at Oxford, discusses some of Freud's revolutionary theories, and how they relate to the practice of psychoanalysis.
E14 · Airs May 28, 1983
Hanna Segal
Although psychoanalysis is usually associated with the work of Sigmund Freud, a number of psychologists have found themselves in disagreement with certain aspects of Freudian theory, and have developed their own variant forms of analytic treatment. In this country the work of Melanie Klein who became convinced of the importance of experiences in the first year of life has been particularly influential. Dr Hanna Segal , an analyst who worked closely with Mrs Klein , explains the basis of Kleinian analysis.
E15 · Airs Jun 4, 1983
Thomas Szasz
Despite remarkable advances in medical science over the past century, there is still no clear medical understanding of the causes of most forms of insanity. Dr Thomas Szasz, author of The Manufacture of Madness and The Myth of Mental Illness, argues that madness has been misrepresented as a disease, and that this has enabled psychiatrists to tyrannise and imprison the mad in the name of philanthropy or therapy.

Details

Status: Ended
First aired: Feb 20, 1983
Network: BBC Two
Studio: BBC

Time to finish

11 hrs

15 episodes. About 2 weeks at an hour a night.

Cast

Jonathan Miller

Self - Presenter

Similar

2Doc

2014

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19887.1

Sunset in the Golden State

20195.5

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20156.8

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20155.4

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20197.5

Secrets of the Brain

20165.0

Horizon

19647.5

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20219.6

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2010

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2016

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200910.0

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States of Mind

About

Where to watch

Details

Time to finish

Cast

If you like this

Similar

States of Mind

About

Where to watch

Episodes

Details

Time to finish

Cast

If you like this

Similar

Episodes