“ In Jacques Cousteau’s book there’s this turning point moment when he looked into the water and it was a completely different world and then he looked back up and he saw people going around, with no idea what was under the surface…There are people who can dive into topics that are kind of unbearable, I mean beyond comprehension, and have the ability to put them into words we can understand.”
A. Chris Heath, MD
Dallas
Episode Description:
Harvey Schwartz welcomes Dr. A. Chris Heath, who is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Heath has dedicated himself to helping people understand their unconscious mind and he’s done this through his remarkable YouTube channel called HeathMD where he features entertaining videos about how the mind works and it has more than 45,000 views. Dr. Heath is a member of the social media and board of the International Psychoanalytical Association as well as a member of the Committee for Public Information of the American Psychoanalytic Association. As you will hear in the interview, there is an aliveness and vibrancy to Dr. Heath – he shows all of us his love of the work, his enjoyment in explaining it and the gift he has of taking nuanced concepts and presenting them in a very user-friendly fashion.
Key Takeaways:
[3:17] Video from Dr. Heath called “How does psychotherapy work?”
[5:06] Dr. Heath talks about how he started his YouTube Channel and what is the feedback he receives from the audience.
[7:15] The contrast between the privacy of the psychoanalytic process and how psychoanalysis outreaches to the community as a tool to achieve profound life changes.
[7:44] Psychoanalysis in times of “quick fix” approaches.
[8:40] People tend to be afraid of psychoanalysis, perceiving it as a “swallowing hole”.
[10:20] Dr. Heath talks about the style he uses in his videos.
[13:07] Dr. Heath ́s YouTube Channel audience is people in the range from 25 to 35 years old.
[16:25] The ability to put into accessible words abstract concepts for everyone to comprehend.
[18:15] The biggest source of anxiety is irrational.
[20:54] The audience who actually view Dr. Heath’s YouTube channel was not the one he was aiming for.
[22:05] Dr. Heath talks about the feedback from the viewers while interacting with the comments section on his YouTube Channel.
[25:10] Dr. Heath shares how his work on YouTube relates to his own personal life and professional career.
Recommended Readings:
Bill Nye (2015). Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World. St Martin’s Press
Jaques-Yves Cousteau (2004). The Silent World. The National Geographic Society
Heath, AC (2018). Will a Video-Based Psychoanalytic Outreach Effort Engage a Young Audience? The Freudalicious Mind Project. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 66(4): NP1- NP6
Obaid FP (2014).
Thanks for your reply Dr. Heath. Glad my comments reached you physically and otherwise. I am not on social media but can message you somehow – separately. Keep up the good work!
-Anne
This podast was truly remarkable. I have so much respect for what Dr. Heath is doing. He is transcending the fixed notions that so many people carry about psychoanalysis— an intimidating or snooty approach. And yet the lay person is our audience. WE are trying to reach the regular human being that has no idea what T or CT is or how splitting may be the culprit to their difficulties etc. Even within the field, there is a stagnant, over theoretical, intellectualized approach to teaching and presenting that often feels defensive and stale. What is often lacking, in my opinion, is translating complex, difficult topics that are often theortically so complicated even for a Ph.D. student and making them accessible to our everyday lives. Dr. Heath reminds me a bit of what Adam Philips tries to do in his writing which is to deeply reach people without jargon and pretense. I too am tired of sheepishly saying “My approach is psychoanalytic” when someone asks me how I work. That usually gets a response that engenders some distance or confusion. Our culture is partly to blame but what Dr. Heath is doing is breaking through these distancing ways of remaining too closed off from the people that actually need us. I will recommend his youTube channel to a lot of people! Young people have a real shot at learning to break patterns, to find love, to build real relationships so that transgenerational traumas don’t have repeat. That would be a HUGE contribution to our culture. I have had patients say, ‘If I only knew how this work could have helped me 20 years ago. I have wasted so much time.” I commend Dr. Heath. What a creative, innovative and gifted human being. To do this is to really spread hope that change is accessible.
Dr Heath here. Thank you, Anne, great comment. I agree completely with you – few people understand what we psychoanalysts really do. And who can blame them? We do a poor job at really engaging the public. Granted, what we do is sophisticated, but the type of listening and reflecting we do is understandable by non-analysts. And the mind is in fact entertaining; humor and sublimation are the most mature and adaptive defense mechanisms. How about using those to engage people.
I am honored to be mentioned in the same post as Adam Philips. We do in fact share a quality though, as we try to make psychoanalysis fun, interesting, and demystified. Yes, please follow and share my YouTube channel, HeathMD. If you are on Tiktok, follow me there @achrisheathmd. I also go by CouchShaman there.
Thank you, Endre! And yes, I wholeheartedly agree. How does the public even know what we do, otherwise? I think they think we just figure stuff out; so why not go to a shorter-term therapy, or even your friend or hairdresser? No, our attention to almost intangible but critical stuff beneath the surface gives us a very special perspective. I hope we can keep getting the word out in a broader fashion.
Thank you for listening, and for your comment.
Excellent! We analysts should all be reaching out to the community and speak simply and comprehensively to a public often very interested about what is psychoanalysis and its relevance to people’s lived experiences.