Why are people so reactive to one another? Why is it challenging to keep peace in our families and workplaces? On this edition of Peace Talks Radio, we’ll explore the field of social intelligence - or a person’s ability to understand his or her environment optimally and react appropriately for peaceful outcomes. Suzanne Kryder talks with two authors who will explain the brain’s role in social intelligence and how we can manage our brains to be more peaceful in social interactions. Dr. Daniel Goleman is an author, psychologist, and science journalist. For twelve years, he wrote for The New York Times, specializing in psychology and brain sciences. Goleman authored the two best-selling books, Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence. In 2009 he published Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything. We’ll also speak with Dr. Rick Hanson, a neuropsychologist and co-author of the book, Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom.

There is a 59:00 and 54:00 version of this program

The American Psychiatric Association just released the 5th version of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) – a manual that says as much about how we view the mind today, as it does about particular mental conditions. Indeed, latest estimates suggest that more than 50% of Americans will suffer from a "mental disorder" at some point in their lifetime, making the once "abnormal" - well, normal.

So in this episode of BackStory,  the American History Guys look back over the history of mental illness in America - exploring how the diagnostic line between mental health and "madness" has shifted over time, and how we’ve treated those on both sides of it. We’ll hear how the desire of slaves to escape bondage was once interpreted as a psychological disorder, how a woman’s sleepwalking landed her in the state asylum, and how perspectives on depression altered in the 1970s. Plus, the Guys walk us through a mid-century quiz that promised to identify a new kind of mental “disorder” - our susceptibility to fascism.   All this and more on this week’s BackStory.

Guests include:

• Katherine Bankole-Medina , Coppin State University, on the supposed mental condition afflicting runaway slaves.
• Allan Horwitz , Rutgers University, on the DSM-III and its “depression checklist” – where symptoms alone ruled the day.
• Jonathan Metzl , Vanderbilt University, on the medicalization of black protest.
• Jamie Cohen-Cole , George Washington University, on post World War II ideas connecting an “authoritarian personality” to authoritarian politics.
• Benjamin Reiss , Emory University, on Jane Rider, a sleepwalking servant girl whose case captured public – and psychiatric – attention.
• Elyn Saks , University of Southern California, on her own experience with schizophrenia.