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Tuesday 1 July 2008
The programme that examines how we think and why we behave as we do, with psychologist, Claudia Hammond.
RELIGIOUS TERRORISM Every time there’s a suicide bombing it’s natural to ask how someone could possibly do such a thing. Many of those who get involved in religiously-motivated terrorism didn’t start out having particularly extreme religious or political views – like Maajid Nawaz who had a liberal upbringing in Southend on Sea in Essex, but later became drawn into Islamic extremism and became a senior member of Hizb-ut Tahrir. Some psychologists believe that by analysing the way people are gradually drawn into terrorist activity it might be possible to intervene earlier in the process to prevent it. All in the Mind spoke to Dr Sara Savage, a social psychologist with the psychology and religion research programme at Cambridge University and to Dr Russell Razzaque, who’s a Consultant Psychiatrist and author of ‘Human Being to Human Bomb: Inside the Mind of a Terrorist’
AMERICAN PRESIDENTS
As Barack Obama and John McCain square up for the US Presidential elections in November, new research from the University of Montana suggests that in order to get elected, candidates need to keep it simple – remember Bill Clinton’s rallying cry “ It’s the economy, stupid”. But once they get into power careful analysis of their speeches shows that their thinking gets more complex for three years until it’s time to get elected again – and then it’s back to the simple messages. The research was carried out by Lucien Gideon Conway III, who examined the “integrative complexity” shown by presidents in their State of the Union addresses.
KETAMINE
The drug ketamine is probably best known as a horse tranquiliser, but it’s also used as an anaesthetic on the battlefield and illegally as a "club drug" that induces the feeling of the mind floating away from the body. But now researchers at Manchester University are researching a completely different use for ketamine – in the treatment of depression. This is the first time in decades that there’s been a completely new kind of approach to dealing with depression through drugs. The Professor of Psychiatry in charge of the project, Bill Deakin, tells All in the Mind about the new findings.
