SHRINK CHAT: The Frozen Ground, The Undoing, Prom Night & Santa Jaws

Why do therapists need gallows humor, and should you worry when a kid draws horror?

Trigger warning: brief mention of children drawing homicide and suicide (about 10:11 to 10:30), discussion of child abuse and trauma (about 13:33 to 18:50), and a real serial killer who targeted women (about 29:28 to 31:52).

It’s Shrink Chat, our weekly horror roundup, from just before Christmas 2020. Cathy’s Horror Facts land on Prom Night, and we get honest about why clinicians lean on gallows humor, why liking horror doesn’t make you unhealthy, and what to do when a child’s art turns dark. Cathy shares new research on why children need a developmentally appropriate trauma diagnosis. Then our buddy watch, Blood Runs Cold, gets the roast it earned, and we cover The Frozen Ground and the real Alaskan serial killer Robert Hansen, the Deathcember anthology, Santa Jaws, Nine Lives, Pieces, The Mandalorian and HBO’s The Undoing.

Therapists Shannon and Cathy talk about gallows humor and burnout in the helping professions, the stigma of loving horror, creative expression versus warning signs in children, why PTSD doesn’t capture how trauma shows up in kids, and why the DSM is such a blunt instrument.

Covered in this episode:

• Norman Reedus’ photo book Portraits from the Woods
• Prom Night (1980) in Horror Facts with Cath
• Therapist jokes, gallows humor and taking down the veil
• When children draw horror: expression or warning sign
• Developmental trauma: why children need a better diagnosis
• Blood Runs Cold (2011), our buddy watch
• The Mandalorian and Robert Rodriguez
• Nine Lives (2002) and Pieces (1982)
• The Frozen Ground (2013), Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Vanessa Hudgens and Robert Hansen
• Santa Jaws and the Deathcember anthology
• The Undoing, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant

Clinical themes: gallows humor and clinician burnout, stigma, creative expression in children, developmental trauma, diagnostic limits of the DSM.

Corrections and updates: Robert Hansen died in prison in 2014. The article Cathy discusses is DeAndrea, Ford, Stolbach, Spinazzola and van der Kolk, “Understanding Interpersonal Trauma in Children: Why We Need a Developmentally Appropriate Trauma Diagnosis,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry (2012). The proposed Developmental Trauma Disorder was not added to DSM-5 (2013) or DSM-5-TR (2022). The Robert Rodriguez episode of The Mandalorian is Chapter 14, “The Tragedy.”

Related episodes:

• SHRINK CHAT: Cari Farver, Frozen, The Exorcist & A Clockwork Orange
• WINTER HORROR: Dead Snow, Cold Prey, Pontypool, ATM & Jack Frost
• WINTER HORROR: Krampus, Black Christmas, 30 Days of Night & Gremlins

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Two licensed therapists, one forensic psychologist, one clinical LMFT, take apart the minds behind the crimes.

Until then... sleep safe. 😴
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