The Psychology of Josh Powell (Chapter 2 - Childhood)
Added 2024-05-22 11:00:09 +0000 UTCDr Kirk Honda and Humberto provide a deep dive on the tragic disappearance of Susan Powell, along with Josh’s suicide, the children’s murder, and Josh’s father’s depravity.
00:00 Steve Powell's beliefs & misogyny
32:16 Steve's journal on The Cold podcast
44:54 Polygamy & the divorce
1:08:23 Josh's IQ & adolescent personality
Become a member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOUZWV1DRtHtpP2H48S7iiw/join
Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/PsychologyInSeattle
Email: https://www.psychologyinseattle.com/contact
Website: https://www.psychologyinseattle.com
Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/psychology-in-seattle
Cameo: https://www.cameo.com/kirkhonda
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psychologyinseattle/
Facebook Official Page: https://www.facebook.com/PsychologyInSeattle/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kirk.honda
May 22, 2024
The Psychology In Seattle Podcast ®
Trigger Warning: This episode may include topics such as assault, trauma, and discrimination. If necessary, listeners are encouraged to refrain from listening and care for their safety and well-being.
Disclaimer: The content provided is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only. Nothing here constitutes personal or professional consultation, therapy, diagnosis, or creates a counselor-client relationship. Topics discussed may generate differing points of view. If you participate (by being a guest, submitting a question, or commenting) you must do so with the knowledge that we cannot control reactions or responses from others, which may not agree with you or feel unfair. Your participation on this site is at your own risk, accepting full responsibility for any liability or harm that may result. Anything you write here may be used for discussion or endorsement of the podcast. Opinions and views expressed by the host and guest hosts are personal views. Although, we take precautions and fact check, they should not be considered facts and the opinions may change. Opinions posted by participants (such as comments) are not those of the hosts. Readers should not rely on any information found here and should perform due diligence before taking any action. For a more extensive description of factors for you to consider, please see www.psychologyinseattle.com
Comments
This was so informative. There is a YouTube channel that I also watch called Andrew van der Vaart. He is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Anyways, an interesting take that he has on Josh Powell is that he was essentially “a blob.” Someone who through his traumatic upbringing and experiences had little to zero sense of self and therefore leached identity from whomever happened to be in his life at the time. Mainly, his dad. Super interesting, as are your deep dives! Thanks for all you do!
Patti
2025-08-06 16:17:50 +0000 UTCI cringe everyyime this podcast and commenter's act like experts in the LDS or Mormon religion. There is no basis for their assumptions except that it may have been one person's experience that is generalized to the entire faith. It paints the religion in a very bad light that is not based off of accuracy.
christie L Lamb
2024-06-12 19:01:06 +0000 UTCAbsolutely.
Psychology In Seattle
2024-05-31 22:20:29 +0000 UTCYes you got it! The LDS girls are taught that their lack of modesty causes temptation in men which the men are not responsible for. Women are responsible for creating temptation. If you go to Aurora and hire an escort it is not your fault because the woman was being a temptress. GRRRR!!!
Tiny Bubbles
2024-05-28 04:59:08 +0000 UTCAnother great deep dive on this case is Stephanie Harlowe’s True Crime YouTube channel. She’s my second favorite YouTube channel after Psychology in Seattle 😊
Shari Hanneman
2024-05-23 20:11:45 +0000 UTCBinge listened to the Cold series on this after Kirk's recommendation and I agree that it is awesome and informative. I kinda got the feeling that the mom had been largely ignored as a parental figure prior to the divorce and set boundaries to correct that following Steve moving out. One thing that stuck with me is Steve's parents divorced and played a "game" with him where each parent kidnapped Steve from the other on a regular basis. The cops weren't involved in this "game" (according to the reporting) but there was a definite fear Steve would do this with his own kids. Add in that Terreca didn't have a career prior to divorce and Steve was withholding support or actively going after her for support (despite making more money), even when she had the younger kids. That would have been a lot to deal with at one time. Humburto, I know this warning is probably way too late but be glad you didn't listen to Steve's music. It really creeped me out. Also, I have an IQ similar to yours and have the same problem with instructions! My therapist hypothesized that my brain starts putting things together on its own and next thing I know I've skipped 5 steps and missed 3 screws (who needed them anyway). Antecedotally, it seems to be a common thing with high IQ individuals where the puzzle solving part of our brains gets ahead of the rest of our bodies. YMMV though.
Kay
2024-05-23 08:00:19 +0000 UTCI think Terreca’s actions, in not pursuing the children for custody or getting them, may have been motivated by the fact that she was a domestic violence survivor. Maybe she was afraid that if she put up a fight she would have had Steven in her life more, and was in a place where her survival was more important than her children’s.
Janice Liu
2024-05-22 21:42:49 +0000 UTCMy moms cousin was like an uncle to me and brother. He convinced us he was a werewolf and would change into one on a full moon lol. We totally believed him. Once time my mom's like let's go to 'uncles' house. I would get terrified and say NO! It's a full moon out! My mom got so annoyed that we believed that. Also he would do things like shake and roll his eyes like he was transitioning into the wolf. We also have a lot of folklore and tales about wolves in Turkic culture. So as kids, I don't know. We really believed that until we were around 11-12. Then we knew it was BS. A part of me loved the adrenaline rush of being scared too. Sometimes I would ask him to turn into a wolf, then get terrified and tell him to stop lol.
Tatyana
2024-05-22 18:45:29 +0000 UTCMan, the mom’s behavior with the contract and the threats to kick him out are even worse after the not making eye contact for a year, previous suicide attempt, and saying he had a “soul deep hurt” information. Wtf.
Lauren King
2024-05-22 16:39:18 +0000 UTCPlease, please do on ongoing parenting series/deep dive! Please!
Nicole deViere
2024-05-22 16:26:53 +0000 UTC
