Dr. Stephanie R. DeLusé, psychologist, researcher, author and teacher, is also Associate Faculty Director of the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (BIS) program at Arizona State University. Her graduate training focused on social and personal issues that affect most of us at one time or another—issues around individual/group interactions, family support and divorce, and health and wellness. Her most recent academic efforts have earned her recognition for her teaching, including selection as one of ASU’s Featured Faculty in 2006 and an Outstanding Faculty Award in 2005. In her sparse free time she communes with nature most frequently in the guise of her cat, her trees and her herb garden replete with insect life and lizards.
Description
This is one essay from the anthology The Psychology of Joss Whedon
First there was “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”; then its spin-off “Angel”; then the cult hit “Firefly”; and its follow-up film, “Serenity.” They all had two things in common: their creator, Joss Whedon … and their surprising psychological depth.
Revisit the worlds of Joss Whedon … with trained psychologists at your side. What are the psychological effects of constantly fighting for your life? Why is neuroscience the Whedonverse’s most terrifying villain? How can watching Joss’s shows help you take on your own psychological issues?
It’s all the best parts of Psych 101—without Professor Walsh.
- Robert Kurzban explains how Mal’s morals are a form of evolutionary pornography, and why we like to watch
- Thomas Flamson explores free will in the Whedonverse—with prophecies, sacred duties and the long arm of the Alliance, does anyone actually have any?
- Carole Poole demonstrates how Buffy and Spike’s season six relationship could be considered metaphor for narcissistic personality disorder—and concludes that Buffy may have been better off continuing it
- Bradley J. Daniels looks at River’s Alliance-altered brain, and the real effects of “stripping” the amygdala
- Mikhail Lyubansky shows why, psychologically, death really is Buffy’s gift
- And editor Joy Davidson takes on Angel’s mommy issues—how the course of his whole extraordinary existence can be traced back to the woman who made him a vampire
About the Author
Joy Davidson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, certified sex therapist, author and video-maker based in Manhattan. She is a familiar expert guest on national television and radio, including “Oprah,” “20/20,” CNN News, NPR, “Prime Time Live,” “Entertainment Tonight” and “Montel.” Dr. Davidson is the author of or contributor to six nonfiction books, and the creator of multi-volume self-help videos for women and couples. She is well known as a magazine and Web advice columnist and appears frequently in publications such as Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Esquire, Redbook and Men’s Health.