Controlling behaviour

All In The Mind

ABC listen

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We all have a natural need for a sense of control in our lives – but the over-controlling kind can get out of hand. People with a psychopathic personality disorder are highly skilled in manipulative techniques – which can wreak havoc if you’re on the receiving end. But every-day controlling behaviour may be getting an unfair bad rap – and may be essential for our wellbeing.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is an ABC podcast.
0:08.8	Hi, it's All in the Mind on RN. I'm Lynne Malcolm.
0:13.2	Today we're talking about control.
0:16.3	The idea of control comes up a lot in psychology.
0:20.6	Controlling behaviours sometimes called coercive
0:23.7	control are a key part of family violence. But psychologist Professor Timothy Carey argues
0:30.9	that control itself is not always a bad thing. He defines control as keeping things the way they are supposed to be.
0:41.0	According to him, control is not only natural, it's essential to our health and well-being.
0:48.5	Control is a fact of nature. The same process that keeps our body temperature stable is the process
0:59.0	that keeps our careers on track and our friendships the way we want them to be and our
1:05.4	partnerships and marriages the way we want them to be and our bank accounts the way we want
1:10.0	them to be. So being able to control the things that want them to be, and our bank accounts the way we want them to be.
1:16.5	So being able to control the things that are important to us is the essence of well-being.
1:23.3	Professor Kerry is currently the director of the Global Health Equity Research Institute in Rwanda.
1:30.0	And we'll be talking more to Professor Kerry about how he uses this understanding of control to treat his patients a bit later on.
1:33.3	But first, let's look at what happens
1:35.8	when the need to be in control
1:37.8	paired with a lack of empathy becomes a problem.
1:42.5	Controlling or manipulative behaviour is one of the key traits of a personality
1:47.6	disorder called psychopathy. Psychopaths, they are drawn to control, they are drawn to power,
1:54.5	they are drawn to attention. It's a part of the narcissistic behavior. Thomas Erickson is a Swedish
1:59.8	behavioural expert who's researched the traits of psychopaths.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from ABC listen, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of ABC listen and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.