All Episodes

June 28, 2023 22 mins
Join us for a captivating interview with therapist and author B. D'Amato as she discusses the fascinating intersection between psychoanalysis and writing. Discover how her experience in the field of psychoanalysis has influenced her fiction writing and explore the themes of abandonment, loss, and longing in her debut novel, Triskele. Don't miss this intriguing conversation about the human psyche and the power of storytelling.
#PsychoanalysisAndWriting #ExploringTheHumanPsyche #AuthorInterview #FictionalCharactersUnveiled #TriskeleNovel bdamato.com https://twitter.com/DrBarbaraDAmato https://www.instagram.com/drbarbaradamato/

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/vigilantes-radio-live--2166168/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You are now listening to Vigilantes Radio, presented by the Only One Media Group.
This is the people's choice for qualityinterviews, celebrities and special guests,
hosted by Demetrius Denny Reynolds. Callin to join the mix at seven eight,
one, one three. For thecomplete archive of episodes, visit only

(00:21):
One Media Group dot com and beshorter like us on Facebook. At Vigilante's
Radio, we welcome all enjoy theshow. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome

(00:50):
your host, Demetrius Kudinie Black Reynolds. Enjoy the show. At dollar seed
dot com, all of our seedsare only a dollar a pack, and
we have online resources that teach youall about the rewarding hobby of growing your
own plants, flowers, herbs,and vegetables. Imagine the joy you'll feel

(01:14):
when your children actually help you harvestyour first garden ground, or the pride
of knowing you'll never need a floorust again. Visit dollar seed dot com
and grow a little magic of yourown for just a dollar dollar seed dot
com. What could be healthier?Hello? Hello, Hello, what is
going on? Guys? Welcome toanother incredible episode of Vigilantees Radio Live right

(01:37):
here on iHeart Radio and I'm yourhost Dni. We have a very special
guest for you guys who you definitelywant to stick around for that and as
a matter of fact, text yourbuddies, family members are even shared on
social media right now and let themknow that we are about to dive deep
into another interview. Before I bringmy guest on, I do want to
say in today's a do we havea sense of wonder? And what I

(02:01):
mean is, no matter what ageyou are, you can always enjoy one
of the most valuable aspects of beingyoung, and that is a genuine sense
of wonder. There is no shortageof wonder and life. It never runs
out, and unfortunately, as wegrow older, we too often tend to
tune it out to not even lookfor it. And me sometimes I'm an

(02:24):
analytical person, so I kind ofwant to look at things from all different
sizes instead of like just being ina moment and exploring that wonder. Right,
So it's always there, It's justover the horizon. And when you
think you sing it all, heardit all, experienced it all, what
reason is there to get out ofbed in the morning. The fact is

(02:46):
you haven't even come close to seeingit all. There's always some new wonder
waiting to be discovered, some newthing that will ascite your passion and at
night DeJoy of your youth, justas surely as you you had travel back
in the time machine. Man.The wonder is out there. There is
a whole universe out there waiting tobe discovered. You've only seen a tidy

(03:09):
fraction of it. A lifetime worthof wonder awaits you. Wonder is an
essential part of childhood, but it'snot just for children. Anyone at any
age can add joy and meaning toany day by experience in the sense of
wonder that comes with each new discovery. So get out there and wonder.

(03:29):
Take that from me, Coachdini.That is my word and word. Have
you struggled budgeting your finances? Don'tworry, You're not alone. Humbled budget
dot com, that's hum bled budgetdot com is the help and resource you've
been searching for. Humbled budget dotcom is a personal finance and educational website

(03:51):
with a great variety of topics whenit comes to budgeting, taxes, investing
in the popular topic of fire,financial independence, retire early. Humbled budget
dot Com as a goal and that'sto help you reach your financial dreams.
No matter what your goals are whenit comes to finances, it doesn't matter
where you start, where you comefrom, or where you are right now,

(04:11):
humbled budget dot com can help.What are you waiting for? Take
that first step to the financial lifeyou've dreamed of and go to humbled budget
dot com. That's h U Mb L E ed bud get humbled budget
dot com. All right, allright again, welcome to the show you're
listening to b r L. That'sVigilantes are Readio live right here on Iheartsreadio,

(04:35):
and I'm your host, DNI.Our interviews are designed to go beyond
music, news, books, art, acting, films, technology, education,
entrepreneurship, entertainment, and sometimes evenpast that thing that we called the
ego. Our interviews are designed togo behind the scenes and into the minds
of these incredible human beings, youknow, the ones who are out there

(04:58):
giving it. They're all for foryou and for the world. I want
to welcome you guys to our specialinterview episode. Today we have the brilliant
author be Diamato joining us with thebackground in psychoanalysis and a deep understanding of
human behavior be Diamato weaves captivating storiesthat dive into the complexities of the human

(05:25):
psyche, and we are excited todive into her unique perspective on a connection
not only between psychoanalysis and writing,but as well as export of the things
of her novel Trust Scale. Solet's go ahead and invite her to the
show. Hello, Hello, Hello, welcome, Hello, Hi, Hi,

(05:46):
how are you hi? Can youhear me? I can hear you?
Great? Okay, good, niceto meet you, Nice to be
with you. Thanks for having me, absolutely, and it's nice to meet
you as well. Well. Firstthings first, did I get your name
correctly? You did? Now,it's funny I had to use the Demotto
as my name on the on thebook because there's another Barbara Demotto who's a

(06:08):
fiction writer who's published. She canjust call me Okay, wow, And
how spectacular that is another Barbara outthere, right. I know I kind
of don't like it. I understandthat. So before we get into the
why and how, I want toknow about the who, So give us

(06:29):
a brief look or a brief peakinto your beginnings. Okay, let's see,
I've been practicing psychoanalysis for thirty yearsand before that, I actually was
a special education teacher, and Irealized it was much more interested in my
students' emotional lives than teaching them howto read and write, which is actually
the easy part. And I wasalso intrigued by why so many seemingly really

(06:55):
intelligent kids were in specialized and itseemed that the particular brand the special lead
that I was working with, thesekids really had emotional needs that we're not
being met and it was impacting yourability to learn. And if the needs
could be met in the classroom bya few different changes of the ways they
were taught and acceptance of their behavior, these kids could really thrive. So

(07:17):
that's how I really got booked intoreally wanting to understand the emotional lives of
people. And from there I startedmy training and then I started I just
became an analyst. I built apractice, and I guess that was quite
a long time ago, but yeah, I'm really really interested in what motivates
people and what gets in people's wayfrom achieving the things that they want in

(07:38):
life. Wow, what did youdiscover? I think people really get in
their own ways that they like weare driven sometimes to do things that are
not in our own best interests.And I'm not speaking by kids anymore,
but adults, and we get,you know, we get involved in self
destructive behaviors that are not serving us, that we can't give up. And

(08:00):
if we can really look through eitherpsychoanalysis or any kind of psychodynamic therapy,
we can really understand who we areand what's driving us to do the things
we're doing. I really believe thatthis process works. Absolutely. Wow.
I would love to dive deep withyou and into that one day. Okay,
yeah, yeah, I always wantto know that as well. So

(08:22):
your debut novel, how do youfeel a novel? Well, publishing is
slow and it takes I mean,it wrote the novel probably eight or nine
years ago, and it takes sucha long time to publish, particularly fiction.
I mean I had written professional papersover the years, and those are
somewhat easier to get published, butto shift into fiction was something so different

(08:46):
that when I finally published it,I was I was expecific. I'm quite
thrilled. I'm quite grilled. Howdid you celebrate? Oh, I've probably
been celebrating since it got published.It's since I had a book launch,
and I've done readings in bookstores,which is so fun because people get to
see the author and ask you aboutthe book, and it's just a really

(09:09):
different kind of thing than being ananalyst sitting in a room just listening to
my patients telling me their stories.But I think all psychoanalysts are really frustrated
gabbers who really want to do thetalking and they don't. So, yeah,
it's been wonderful. Yeah. Youhave to take in a moment one
day, stopping like, yeah,he is here, I did it.

(09:31):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, yes, yes, So tell us
about the novel and the inspiration behindit. Okay, the novel has a
very unusual name, Triscale. Thetriscale is an ancient Celtic pre Christian symbol
that is three interconnected spirals that areheld together to a common core. So

(09:54):
the book tri Scale is about threeinterconnected characters who really need each other and
they don't know it. They sortof meet in a very random set of
experiences and coincidences, and they reallyreally need each other to help them,
to help them grow and to achievewhat the three of them were actually looking
for. They were all deeply damagedin some way and they are looking for

(10:18):
what I call grace in the bookto be accepted and to sort of be
who they really are. And it'sthree of them really impact each other in
this very tight way. So that'ssort of the meaning of the book.
I think the other question you askedwas why what may be writed or for
the second part of the question,just would inspire the story. You know,

(10:39):
you said you've written professional documents orpages before, but this right first
time you've fentured into nonfiction, right. I think just listening to people's stories
as a as a psychoanalyst over somany years, that there's so much material
there. I mean, people haveasked me if this one particular you're a

(11:00):
patient or is this one particular case, and it's not. It's kind of
a conglomerate of many, many,many stories of people who are really searching
to be who they are and they'regetting in their own way. Absolutely so,
your work in cycle analysis and writingallows you to explore the motivations and
desires that drive human behavior. Ibet you had a field day, you

(11:24):
know, with the characters. Buthow has your experience and psychoanalysis influenced your
approach to creating and understanding the fictionalcharacters in your novel. Oh, that's
a good question. I think we'reall driven in some way by things that
we don't always understand, and peopledo things that they don't always understand,

(11:48):
and we all have a dark side, and in our society, in our
world, based on either religion orcultures, and we don't want to believe
that it's dark side, and wewill have, you know, bad impulses
sometimes and people tend to sort ofwant to push those away. And the
more you push something away sometimes thestronger it gets. So I think to

(12:09):
analysis, and which I think Idemonstrated in the story, if people can
talk through these bad feelings or thesebad experiences, they can separate the feeling
that they have from having to gointo action. And I think that's sort
of a core message I wanted peopleto understand. You can feel bad,
you can dislike somebody, you cannotwant to be around them, but you

(12:33):
don't have to act on those feelingsif you can know that you have them
and just kind of manage them andwork through them. That's kind of a
long answer to your question. No, it's a great answer. Did you
have trouble putting yourself in your charactershoes? I think what I try to
avoid doing was putting too much ofmyself into my characters, because it's so

(12:58):
interesting. As a psychost you're reallynot revealing yourself. You're kind of just
being there as a container for thepatient to tell you all of what's going
on with them, And when youwrite, you're really exposing yourself. And
I have this idea that writers,certainly fictional writers, are resolving some of
their own conflicts through the characters theycreate. So some of that was a

(13:22):
little tricky that I didn't want toreveal too much of myself. Absolutely all
right, So things of abandonment,laws, and longing are central interest kill.
Can you tell us more about howthese things manifesting your novel and how
they relate to your understanding of thehuman psyche through your work and psychoanalysis.

(13:43):
I know I keep going back tothat, but it seems like that's okay.
I mean, that's just the storyis really about. I mean,
it starts out these two siblings,very young kids in a dysfunctional families.
It's a very unstable mother and nodads, and this special molestation happens to

(14:03):
thee to the sister from the brother'sgood friend who was sleeping over. So
from that experience, he goes totake revenge on the friend. The friend
gets injured, something terrible happens andhe has to run away from home.
So from this one incident, awhole series of bad events happened. The
mother has a breakdown and the sisteris put in foster care hard but the

(14:26):
family is shattered. So from that, each of these characters is now filled
with some longing to sort of reconnectto the missing sibling, to the to
the lost mother, and their wholelife now is a series of trying to
become whole again. So there's alonging to connect with people that they've lost,

(14:48):
and that's really as the abandonment partcomes in. In this particular family,
they lost each other, they lostpeople. But for patients that can
happen in a variety of ways.I think it's a very uni versal thing
that people have lost something early,very early in life, and they spend
a lifetime looking forward. Yes.Indeed, so writing and cycloanalysis both involve

(15:13):
diving into the depths of human nature. And what ways do you see these
two disciplines intersecting, and how dothey inform and or even inspire each other
in your creative process. Well,they're too, sort of side two different
sides of the same coin. Ithink a psychoanalysis is a very cathartic experience

(15:33):
their patience where they've held on tothings they've never told anybody, or they've
looked at, they've expressed things thatthey've looked at differently, So it's a
very cathartic experience. Writing is asimilar Similarly a cathartic experience. When you're
writing, you're just bringing up,whether it's fictional, imaginary, creative process,

(15:54):
you're pulling up something out of yourself. So they're very I think in
that way. They definitely inform eachother when you're doing it. You may
not be aware of it, butit's definitely coming from from inside of your
body in some way. Yes.And also your previous work, um,
outside of the novel, focus onclinical material and psychoanalysis, and now you

(16:15):
have ventured into fiction writing, um, which is I think is a huge
shift. You know, oh totally, it's yea completely different complete. When
you write a professional paper, youhave to sort of back up what you're
saying, You have to have yourreferences in order, you have to nature
what you're saying is accurate in fiction, you kind of can do whatever you

(16:36):
want. Not that I didn't doresearch. I mean I do a lot
of research, you know about locations, and M Paul is studying to be
a priest. I had to readyou know, what do you do to
study became to be a priest?But there's there's a much more creative process.
I could just go wherever I wantedto go, very very different,
but it was liberating in a way. Yeah, I was going to ask

(16:57):
you, like, how deep intodid you go? Have researched all sorts
of things, like if I wantedsomething to happen in particular neighborhood, I
looked up that neighborhood. At onepoint, pol was hitchhiking up to his
father's farm and a certain cities thatI wanted to make sure there's a highway
they had the right number, andI just all sorts of things like that.

(17:19):
Y. So you were able toexplore inner conflicts opposing impulses of your
characters in different ways. Which characterdid you enjoy putting these kinds of things
together, especially the inner conflicts.I guess that's that's a good question,

(17:41):
and it's hard to answer. Whichcharacter that I guess I want to go
back to the title, which istriscale, that I in some way I
saw the three characters as one character, that each one of them had some
deep baggage and heavy baggage they werecarrying that they wanted, they needed to
resolve, and they didn't know how. I think in many ways, I

(18:03):
saw all three characters as one insome way, if that makes any sense,
that I wanted to put a lotof depths into each one of them.
I didn't want any one character tobe heroic, and I didn't want
any one character to be demonic.I wanted them all to have these sort
of two sides, like all humansare good and bad to some degree.

(18:29):
What do you hope readers take awayfrom the journey you've created for your characters
that still see that human beings justcarry stuff that we may not know we
carry. I mean, the beginningof the show, you were talking about
a sense of wonder and I waskind of very inspired by that. And
we all want to have this lifewhere we experience things almost in a way

(18:53):
a child did, and we getbogged down with so much baggage. But
if you can go into therapy,doesn't have to eason, have to be
analysis. You can really unburden yourselfwith some of the stuff that really gets
in our way. I think that'sthe message I want people to take away
from this novel that being human ishard. Stuff happens to us, and

(19:15):
if you can talk through it,you can lighten the load. You really
can lighten. It takes time,it's not easy, but you can do
it. Absolutely. Where can ourreaders, where can our listeners commit with
you online and check out the novel. My website is b Demato dot com.
The novelist try scales available on Amazon, but you can get it to

(19:37):
my website and that's probably the bestway to connect. You can find out
more about who I am on mywebsite. All right, all right,
listeners, I will have those linksin the description of this episode and in
the show notes, so all youguys have to do just click the links.
Well, thank you so much forbeing our special guest tonight. It
was truly an honor having you herewith us. Oh, thank you.

(19:59):
The pleasure was on and thank youso much. Absolutely, take care,
have a good night you too.Thank you my Vigilante's family. As always
for checking out my podcast over here. At Vigilante's Radio Live. All episodes
are available for free download and youcan grab it from either Spricker dot com,
Forward Slash, only one media groupSpotify, cast Box, i Heearts

(20:22):
Radio, iTunes, YouTube, theapp podcast Addict, or over at our
website, which again is only onemedia group dot com and that goes for
every single show that we've ever aired. If you like to request some music
or sending something for me to play, email it to V Radio at only
one media group dot com that isV as in Victor. And here's my

(20:45):
disclaimer. We are jump or free. We do not judge, and we
absolutely do not base our opinions onhearsay but facts alone. And actually scratch
all of that because all of myopinions are always right. As the bottom
line, this is my show,so deal with it. Just kidding on
bath of myself, Danny. Iappreciate all you guys for tuning in either

(21:07):
afterwards or alive with us. Spreadthe word because sharing is caring. We
stuck up our game just for youguys and our guests to make sure that
you have the best experience here onour show. Be sure to connect with
me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumbler, Snapchat, TikTok at all
social media sites as well as SprinckerYouTube. We always follow back. Okay,

(21:33):
well, just remember to put yourselfinto everything that you do and never
stop investing in yourself. Peace,love, grilled cheese and talk with you
later. You and now listening tovigil Lancy Radio, People's choice for quality

(22:02):
interviews, art, music and heartstopics, hosted by Demetrius Housini Black Reynolds
of the duo No Longer the Hero. All episodes of this podcast are available
for free download at www. Dotsonly one media group dot com. This
is a seventh Sign Regime Rebirth WorldwideSyndicate exclusive
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.