EXPERTS & GUESTS
The People Behind the Conversations
Researchers, clinicians and authors whose work helps us understand destructive personalities, manipulation, dysfunctional systems and how to build a more self-determined life.
Joel Paris, MD
AREA OF EXPERTISE
Psychiatrist, researcher and author
Joel Paris is a psychiatrist and researcher who has treated more than 30,000 patients. He is a former editor-in-chief of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry and former chair of the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University. He has published hundreds of peer-reviewed articles and several books on personality disorders, trauma, childhood and psychiatric overdiagnosis.
Personality disorders •
Borderline personality disorder • Psychiatric diagnosis and overdiagnosis •
Trauma, adversity and resilience
SELECTED BOOKS
Myths of Trauma
Myths of Childhood
Overdiagnosis in Psychiatry
Fads and Fallacies in Psychiatry
Hans-Joachim Maaz, Dr.
AREA OF EXPERTISE
Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and author
Hans-Joachim Maaz is a German psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and author regarded as a pioneer of psychodynamic individual therapy in East Germany. From 1980 to 2008, he led the psychotherapy clinic at the Evangelisches Diakoniewerk in Halle, where he helped introduce psychodynamic, body-oriented and Gestalt-based methods. His work focuses on emotional development, self-alienation, relationships and society.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy •
Emotional development and self-alienation • Relationships and attachment patterns • Normopathy and social psychology
SELECTED BOOKS
Das falsche Leben
Der Gefühlsstau
Die narzisstische Gesellschaft
Die Liebesfalle
Michael E. Kerr, MD
AREA OF EXPERTISE
Psychiatrist, researcher and author
Michael E. Kerr is a family psychiatrist who trained under and worked with Murray Bowen for over a decade before succeeding him as Director of the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in 1990. He later became Emeritus Director. His work focuses on differentiation of self, family emotional process, cancer, the unidisease concept and the relationship between human and other-species emotional processes.
Bowen family systems theory •
Differentiation of self • Family emotional process • Evolutionary perspectives on emotional process
SELECTED BOOKS
Family Evaluation
Bowen Theory’s Secrets
One Family's Story
Daniel N. Jones, PhD
AREA OF EXPERTISE
Personality researcher, professor and author
Daniel N. Jones is a Professor of Management and Director of the PhD in Business Administration Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Trained in personality and social psychology, his research examines how dark personality traits, particularly narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and sadism, predict manipulation, deception and unethical behavior across social, organizational and cybersecurity contexts.
Dark Triad & Dark Tetrad • Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy • Manipulation and deception • Dark personalities in organizations • Emophilia and relationship vulnerability
SELECTED BOOKS
Falling Fast: The Perils and Possibilities of Emophilia
Timothy R. Levine, PhD
AREA OF EXPERTISE
Professor and Chair of Communication
Timothy R. Levine is Professor and Chair of Communication at the University of Oklahoma. He is an internationally recognized deception researcher whose work focuses on lying, truth-default theory, persuasion, credibility, and interpersonal communication. He has published more than 160 journal articles, and his book Duped outlines his 30-year program of research on deception.
Deception, lying and deception detection •
Truth-Default Theory • Persuasion, credibility and social influence •
Interpersonal communication and research methods
SELECTED BOOKS
Duped: Truth-Default Theory and the Social Science of Lying and Deception
David M. Allen, MD
AREA OF EXPERTISE
Psychiatrist and psychotherapy theorist
David M. Allen is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and former psychiatry residency director at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. A researcher and psychotherapy theorist, he integrates family systems, psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral perspectives. His work examines how family dynamics shape self-destructive behavior and dysfunctional roles across generations.
Dysfunctional family systems • Family roles, double binds and chronic invalidation • Personality disorders and self-destructive behavior • Integrative psychotherapy
SELECTED BOOKS
Coming soon
Coping with Critical, Demanding, and Dysfunctional Parents
How Dysfunctional Families Spur Mental Disorders
