About This Episode
"Særafsnit: Derfor kan du ikke selv styre, om du kæmper, fryser eller" is a special episode of Mørkeland, a Danish true crime podcast made by three journalists, and it deals with the automatic reactions the body produces when the nervous system registers that life is in danger. Rather than examining a specific criminal case, the episode focuses on the psychological and physiological mechanics that unfold in extreme situations — and on why some people fight, while others flee, freeze or try to make themselves appear harmless to a threat.
The guest is Didde Hauch, a researcher in clinical psychology at the University of Southern Denmark and part of Videnscenter for Psykotraumatologi, a Danish research centre for psychotraumatology. Her work concerns trauma responses, and she explains which automatic reactions the body can trigger when a person feels their life is under threat.
Much of the conversation turns on a single question: can you prepare for, or influence, your own reaction in a life-threatening situation? Is it possible to decide in advance that you will act and fight back, or is the response entirely outside the control of the will?
The episode also looks at how the understanding of trauma responses has developed historically, which misconceptions still circulate publicly, and what actually happens in a perpetrator's nervous system during and after a violent crime. Taken together, it is an episode about the body's alarm system when extreme danger arrives.
Mørkeland digs into the darkest Danish criminal cases, with three journalists behind the microphone. Assistant editing on this episode is by Anders Eske, and the music is from Bensound. The episode is number 400 in the series and runs for 62 minutes.
