An Educational Evening in Cyprus Avenue

By Reporter Amelia McGrath Martin

I know the title of this sounds like an oxymoron, but I promise you it is the truth. If you have ever been to Cyprus Avenue you will know that it is not the place where you would usually think to learn something educational, I thought the exact same, but that all changed on Tuesday 30 January when I went to a seed talk.

“Seed Talks” are a business who organise these interesting talks all around Ireland and the UK and their website identifies that they are mainly about Science, Psychedelics, Wellness, Philosophy, Psychology and Neuroscience. The talk I went to was on the psychology of psychopaths and was given by Dr Kostas Papageorgiou who is a senior lecturer at Queen’s University in Belfast, and I honestly found it very enjoyable. If you are someone who enjoys true crime documentaries and Criminal Minds type things you would have loved this.

The Art History of Studio Ghibli Seed Talk in 2023

I know the sound of attending a lecture outside of college hours is not the most appealing proposition, however the talk was spilt into two sections. In the first section Dr Kostas Papageorgiou talked about what psychopathy actually is, and in the second section he talked about what how people deal with it. This talk really made you think about how psychopathy is portrayed and how there can be benefits to possessing these traits which if you had told me before the talk I would have not believed, such as how we tend to find people with these traits in jobs we turn to in a crisis like a surgeon or a guard. One of the most interesting facts that Dr.Kostas relayed was the statistic that psychopathy is found in 0.6-1 per cent of the population meaning that in that room of 300 people about 3 would have had antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), which is the clinical term for psychopathy.

I do not have the longest attention span and even I did not find my mind wandering during this talk, the fact that it was spilt into two sections the first lasting about 45 minutes and the second about an hour meant that you were not just listening to someone drone on for hours, he also set aside time at the end where people could ask questions which was also great for keeping the talk progressing well and not allowing it to get boring. All in all, it was an interesting evening starting with the fact that you were sitting down and completely sober in Cyprus Avenue and ending with the fact that you left having actually learnt something educational, a change certainly, but most definitely a welcome one. Seed Talks are hosting another talk on Tuesday 20 February on the art history of Studio Ghibli, if you have any interest in that topic it would definitely be a worthwhile experience to go along and see how you would enjoy an educational evening in Cyprus Avenue.