Blame the Amygdala: Recent Episodes
Jack Pemment
Brain Stains, Killers, and Psychopaths
I use this platform to share blog posts and stories as audio files. My posts are typically a mix of social observation from a psychological perspective, and a range of stories. My stories are typically dark humor, but I also like to explore mental health themes.
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2021/11/18/a-pandemic-romance/
Moira is a little girl talking to her cat on Halloween.
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2021/10/28/moira-a-childs-halloween-story/
During moments off pre Autistic burnout, sometimes I like to write. These words came out of the ashes.
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2022/11/30/smoking-neurons-and-smoldering-glia-asylum-stories/
I have decided to personally narrate this story and hope you enjoy it.
This is the first part of my story, Larry the Boxer, a heavyweight on a quest to defeat a dragon. His companion on this journey, is a talking squirrel, Lord Cyril Templemead, and along the way he a fights bees, pike, a bear, and helps a colony of spiders build a block of flats.
I'm a huge boxing fan, and I have included in this story a number of references to the boxing world.
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2021/06/21/larry-the-boxer-part-one/
"She smells so clean. Her body is so lean. With the right blade all of that should slip straight off."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2021/04/09/hope/
“Pop another synapse, Joe!” was the rallying cry, and all of us, the blue coats, the red coats, the green coats, and the orange coats would wait for the yellow coat to locate the precise region on the tube to make an incision, before pushing in the connector tube and linking it to the correct tube over before the juice could leak.
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/asylum-stories-pop-another-synapse-joe/
“Can you remember Count Dracula?” he continued, trying to lead me to the right word.
“I don’t remember him,” I replied, honestly. “I mean, I didn’t see him anywhere.”
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/asylum-stories-sometimes-words-escape-me/
A short story I wrote under the banner of "Asylum Stories".
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/the-impossible-chess-game/
A short horror story.
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2015/12/31/ebony/
"If we explore perhaps the most antisocial of behaviors, taking the life of another, sociopathy as a study of the ideas that led up to the act adds to our wealth of knowledge of those with disorders or illnesses that can lead to murder."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/whats-in-a-name-the-fickleness-of-sociopathy-ideas-the-suspension-of-the-conscience-and-why-psychopathy-is-completely-different/
This is a short story I wrote about a guy, desperate to get out of a work outing and go on a date with his new lady love.
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2018/04/22/the-date/
"While the history sociopaths present might not be objectively accurate, or perhaps even stunningly ignorant, they see themselves ultimately as truthful and righteous, and no doubt want others to see them that way, too."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2018/03/25/manifesto-the-relationship-sociopaths-have-with-themselves/
"Anosognosia involving an empathy deficit could have a profound impact on the person’s life and their choices. Before the onset of anosognosia and the empathy deficit, the person might feel that certain behaviors are wrong, such as assault and violence; with empathy, these behaviors can be understood as deeply destructive, and function to prevent one engaging in them. The onset of anosognosia and an empathy deficit could lead to a person transitioning from feeling that a certain behavior is bad, to amoral or even good behavior."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2018/04/25/can-anosognosia-help-explain-some-public-acts-of-violence/
"I think the most powerful argument here, is that you cannot legislate what women wear. With the notable exception of indecency laws (wearing nothing in public), as soon as you legislate what a woman can wear, you are assaulting her rights as a person, and you are undermining her right to choose what she wears."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2018/09/09/women-must-retain-the-choice-of-wearing-the-burka-and-the-hijab/
"This is far from admitting that love spurned individuals will turn to corpses out of sheer convenience, but we have to remember that some people do turn to corpses, and some of the motivations that take them there are rooted in genuine human needs."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2018/09/30/the-appeal-of-necrophilia/
"A dead partner is not judgmental, there is no fear of needing to produce a reciprocal orgasm during sex, cannot emotionally hurt anyone, can be trusted, does not answer back, there is no concern about offspring, and can meet what is only a temporary need for sexual intimacy."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/the-building-blocks-of-necrophilia-the-importance-of-olfaction-and-loving-the-living/
"Then I realized that there have been times when listening to particularly intelligent and cognitively-acrobatic women, where my physiological response has included a noticeable guttural growl. Just listening to these brilliant women cut through arguments and propose new ideas and theories was stimulating, not just in all kinds of ways, but all the ways."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2018/12/24/whats-the-difference-between-a-philosopher-and-a-sapiosexual/
"Unlike the controlled appreciated and respect of the things we love, being in love lacks control and regulation. It is the vacuum or the placeholder for someone or something; a space that is occupied by obsession and fantasy until it can be filled."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/the-perils-of-loving/
"Necrophilia gave Ted complete power over his victims, which could have been his answer to never wanting to feel fearful or feel rejected again."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2019/01/31/ted-bundys-necrophilia/
"Western culture typically promotes the exposure of our face, but strongly encourages the public concealment of our second face. The exposure our second face to whomever we choose to do so in private (hopefully not public), remains our privilege, and our desire to see the second faces of others occupies our fantasies."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/your-genitals-are-your-second-face-and-your-face-is-your-second-genitals/
"When you look at serial killing as the desire to have an experience with another person, it frames it as the dire need for a connection, albeit temporary, and a way of connecting with the world."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2019/02/20/serial-killing-as-a-desire-for-intimacy/
"The content of the belief was never up for discussion. It was only shared to be validated. From this foundation, any response that challenges the belief might well be ignored or met with derision. Self-expression is not up for debate."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2020/10/15/sharing-yourself-reflections-on-social-media-use/
"I don’t think I can listen to one more suited-up moron with a MBA, pacing around a stage in front of a large screen, palms up, and talking in that sickly matter-of-fact way to convince the audience they have found some kind of sacred truth about life."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2020/01/09/work-life-balance-and-the-meaning-of-life/
"Highlighting, underlining, bolding, italicizing, marking as urgent, creatively using the subject line; all ways not just to capture your attention, but to usurp it, to drain it, to take you out to dinner and stick you with the check."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2020/06/06/please-somebody-create-personality-filters-for-e-mail/
"This makes one wonder if the sheer ecstasy of intellectual liberation automatically opens one up to giving oneself sexually and physically."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2021/01/24/hannah-arendt-and-the-complexities-of-loving/
"We do need language to voice our concerns and explain our social battles. But if we want to be successful in our plight, we need to make smarter choices about the realities we’re describing."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2021/02/11/stop-using-how-jews-were-treated-in-nazi-germany-as-an-analogy/
I wrote this piece of flash fiction a few months into the pandemic while I was in a remote work meeting. This is where my depressed mind went.
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2021/02/22/work-meetings-these-days-2/
"The training would need to convince certain individuals that their beliefs (and possibly actions) are ignorant at best, and harmful at worst – otherwise, what’s the point of diversity training?"
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2021/03/22/personal-connections-at-work-and-diversity-training/
"The reason that a depressed mind is crucial here, is that if the personal pain is felt for long enough, the person could be extremely motivated to end the pain, and if suicidality has married with a toxic ideology, for long enough, a last act of vengeance starts to become probable."
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://blametheamygdala.wordpress.com/2021/03/27/depression-and-hate-ideology-a-hypothesis-for-the-proliferation-of-the-mass-shooter/