Being Human

AI was supposed to replace what humans make. Instead, it's revealing what only humans can. In this episode, Dr. Greg sits down with Mike Marshall, Director of Design at the CatholicPsych Institute, to explore the irony at the heart of the AI age: the closer machines get to perfection, the more clearly we see that imperfection isn't a flaw to engineer away: it's the signature of being human.
Key Topics:
What it means to be human in an age that can imitate almost everything
Why the closer AI gets to "perfect," the more obvious it becomes that something's missing
Why signing your work is becoming a quiet act of resistance in an age of imitation
What it actually takes to stay human in a world that's getting very good at faking it
Learn More:
Letter to Artists by Pope St. John Paul II – The letter referenced throughout the conversation
mikemarshalldesign.com – The hand behind every piece of CatholicPsych branding, and available for freelance work 
The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton – The meditation Mike draws from on man as "maker," not Creator
The Mindful Catholic by Dr. Greg Bottaro – The book with the "keys in a blender" story Dr. Greg never expected readers to remember 
Watch other Being Human episodes on YouTube – Watch the full video archive of the Being Human podcast
Sam Altman on AI Images – The referenced video clip on why the value of perfection is going to zero 
The Integrated Life Journal – Quarterly journal on disintegrated care in the modern world, and what integration looks like in practice 
Summit of Integration 2026 – Sign up to learn more about this year's event!
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The meltdown. The defiance. The constant "look at me." It's easy to wonder if something is wrong. But most of the time, these aren't signs of a disorder — they're signs of development still in progress.
In this episode, Dr. Greg explores what's really underneath "behavior problems," why children can't be diagnosed with personality disorders, and why the question that changes everything isn't "what's wrong with my child?" — but "what does my child need from me right now?"
Key Topics:
Why children cannot be diagnosed with personality disorders — and what's actually happening when their behavior looks like one
How emotional regulation is learned, not innate — and what co-regulation actually looks like
Why a child's dramatic, self-centered, or defiant behavior is often developmentally appropriate
What it means when a child borrows a parent's nervous system — and why that steadiness is the foundation
Why the patterns we see in our kids so often point back to something in us
How a parent's own unhealed wounds shape the environment a child grows up inside
Why admitting our own imperfection is one of the most formative things we can give our children
Learn More:
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Start of the Being Human series on the Histrionic Defense Patterns:   Ep. #274: To Be Loved Is to Perform: Inside the Histrionic Compulsion for Attention and Validation

Start of the Being Human series on the Borderline Defense Patterns: Ep. #269: BORDERLINE: The Push-Pull Between a Fear of Abandonment and Annihilation

Start of the Being Human series on the Dependent Defense Patterns: Ep. #265: Jerry Maguire, Gollum, and the Fear of Not Existing

Start of the Being Human series on the Narcissistic Defense Patterns: Ep. #261: Narcissism and the Terror of Being Ordinary

Pilgrimage to Poland - Learn more about this journey with St. John Paul II
Summit of Integration 2026 - Sign up to learn more about this year's event!
Healing Retreat in Wyoming - Learn more about our upcoming retreat experience.
The Stages of Spiritual Development - Previous Being Human episode on how the stages of human development are interrelated to the stages of spiritual development.
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$20 billion in research. Suicide rates 32% higher than the year 2000. Something is deeply wrong — and it isn't a lack of effort.
In this episode, Dr. Greg makes the case that the mental health crisis isn't a funding problem or an awareness problem. It's a standard problem. Without a vision of what a healthy human person actually looks like, the best we can do is manage symptoms. And he introduces something new: a Mental Health Litany and Novena beginning May 15th — nine days of prayer leading into Pentecost, naming the specific fears and lies beneath our patterns and bringing them before Christ.
Key Topics:
Why decades of funding and awareness haven't moved mental health in the right direction
Why the absence of symptoms is not the same thing as health
What Catholic anthropology offers that the mental health industry doesn't have
Why the Church has been slow to speak into mental suffering — and what that silence has cost
How a litany does something that silence and symptom-management can't
What it looks like to bring anxiety, depression, and trauma into Catholic prayer — by name
Learn More:
Download the Mental Health Litany and join the Novena: catholicpsych.com/litany
Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier: The book Dr. Greg references that argues our current mental health treatments may be making the problems worse 
Start of the Being Human series on the Histrionic Defense Patterns: Ep. #274: To Be Loved Is to Perform: Inside the Histrionic Compulsion for Attention and Validation

Start of the Being Human series on the Borderline Defense Patterns: Ep. #269: BORDERLINE: The Push-Pull Between a Fear of Abandonment and Annihilation

Start of the Being Human series on the Dependent Defense Patterns: Ep. #265: Jerry Maguire, Gollum, and the Fear of Not Existing

Start of the Being Human series on the Narcissistic Defense Patterns: Ep. #261: Narcissism and the Terror of Being Ordinary

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Healing isn't about changing your personality. It's about being freed from the compulsions that drive it. In this final episode of the histrionic series, Dr. Greg explores what the path from performance to presence actually looks like — why hiddenness feels terrifying but works like medicine, and why the deepest fear underneath this pattern can only be answered by God.
Key Topics:
Why healing doesn't mean losing what makes you magnetic — and what actually does need to change
How a room falling silent can feel like ceasing to exist — and why that's the wound, not the cure
Why hiddenness feels like punishment but acts like medicine
What it means when provoking a reaction feels more real than having a real conversation
Why no amount of being seen by other people ever quite reaches the thing underneath
Why real connection becomes possible only when you stop needing to be the most interesting person in the room
Learn More:
Need help? Schedule a free CatholicPsych consultation
Being Human series on the Histrionic Defense Patterns: Ep. #276: Back to Eden: Overcoming the Fear of Being Alone Through Divine Love
Ep. #275: Hiding the Real You: The Histrionic Battle for Intimacy
Ep. #274: To Be Loved Is to Perform: Inside the Histrionic Compulsion for Attention and Validation

Previous episode on attachment theory: Ep. #63: Attachment Theory: What It Is, What It Isn't, and How It Affects Your Relationships

Previous episodes on parts work (IFS): Ep. #34: A New Theory! w/ a Catholic Lens
Ep. #35: Why Do I Feel Like I Have Conflicting Thoughts? w/ Dr. Peter Malinoski

The Jeweler's Shop by Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) — the play Dr. Greg references on the theater of the word and the freedom of love
God Is Love: St. Teresa Margaret — Her Life — the book Dr. Greg discovered in college about the Carmelite mystic whose life of radical hiddenness is a model for this healing path
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity: The Complete Works, Volume One — the Carmelite mystic Dr. Greg credits with introducing him to St. Teresa Margaret
Summit of Integration 2026 — Coming to Dallas this October, celebrating the Year of John Paul II
Start of the Being Human series on the Borderline Defense Patterns: Ep. #269: BORDERLINE: The Push-Pull Between a Fear of Abandonment and Annihilation

Start of the Being Human series on the Dependent Defense Patterns: Ep. #265: Jerry Maguire, Gollum, and the Fear of Not Existing

Start of the Being Human series on the Narcissistic Defense Patterns: Ep. #261: Narcissism and the Terror of Being Ordinary

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Being seen is not the same as being known. The life of the party can be the most isolated person in the room — filling every silence, commanding every gaze, and going home to an emptiness no audience has ever touched. In this episode, Dr. Greg goes into the loneliest part of the histrionic pattern: why the most socially active person in the room can also be the most profoundly alone, and why only God can reach what no human mirror ever could.
Key Topics:
Why being the most social person in the room can also leave you the most alone
What it reveals when provoking a reaction starts to feel more real than having a real conversation
How early wounds teach you that your existence depends on other people's responses
Why heat is not warmth — and reaction is not connection
What Henri Nouwen's I-Thou relationship reveals about why an audience never actually fills you
Why no parent was ever meant to give you what you most deeply need
Why God is not just the answer to this wound — but the only one it makes sense to bring it to
Learn More:
Need help? Schedule a free CatholicPsych consultation
Being Human series on the Histrionic Defense Patterns: Ep. #275: Hiding the Real You: The Histrionic Battle for Intimacy
Ep. #274: To Be Loved Is to Perform: Inside the Histrionic Compulsion for Attention and Validation

Gaudium et Spes — See paragraph 22 for the full quote of "Christ reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear"
Henri Nouwen Society — explore Henri Nouwen's writings on the I-Thou relationship
Start of the Being Human series on the Borderline Defense Patterns: Ep. #269: BORDERLINE: The Push-Pull Between a Fear of Abandonment and Annihilation

Start of the Being Human series on the Dependent Defense Patterns: Ep. #265: Jerry Maguire, Gollum, and the Fear of Not Existing: A Deep Dive into the Dependent Defense Pattern

Start of the Being Human series on the Narcissistic Defense Patterns: Ep. #261: Narcissism and the Terror of Being Ordinary: Why Real Change Happens through Love not Willpower

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