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Psychology

Essays and videos offering insights into the self, relationships, cognition and neuroscience

Addiction Ageing and death Childhood and adolescence Cognition and intelligence Consciousness and altered states Family life Gender and identity Language and linguistics Life stages Love and friendship Mental health Mood and emotion Neurodiversity Neuroscience Personality Pleasure and pain Psychiatry and psychotherapy Self-improvement Sex and sexuality Sleep and dreams Social psychology Spirituality Teaching and learning Technology and the self Wellbeing

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Daguerreotype of a man in a Victorian-era suit holding a rod with one eye closed, framed by an ornate gold border.

essay

History of science

Injury and inhibition

The misunderstood story of Phineas Gage shows that we need a new way of understanding the experiences of brain injury survivors

Ben Platts-Mills

A person in a hi-vis vest sitting outdoors at a table with a drink, looking into the distance.

essay

Technology and the self

The unseen

Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being

Allison J Pugh

A white playroom with a boy in a tent and his mother reading to him holding stuffed animals, toys scattered around.

video

Family life

A mother and child bond in an unusual prison visitation space in this poignant portrait

11 minutes

Black and white photo of a woman and man sitting on a sofa holding a newspaper with a front-page story about a UFO sighting.

essay

History of science

Incredible testimonies

In the 1980s, thousands of Americans began to suspect they may have been abducted by aliens. What happened?

Greg Eghigian

Four ballet dancers practising at a barre, wearing black leotards and pink tights, leaning back with their left arms raised.

essay

Neuroscience

Ingredients for brilliance

An immersive ‘flow state’ isn’t only accessible to great artists and athletes. You can find your flow too. Here’s how

Julia F Christensen

video

Film and visual culture

Space and time expand, contract and combust in this propulsive animation

5 minutes

Black and white photo of two girls in dresses touching foreheads while sitting on a rock in a field of daisies.

video

Childhood and adolescence

‘Do worms cry?’ – and other questions collected from the mind of a curious child

4 minutes

A young person with curly hair and glasses, wearing a backpack, indoors in what appears to be a school setting, with a green door and soft lighting, other children in background.

essay

Neurodiversity

Our diverse togetherness

While initiatives for inclusive education mean well, schools fail to provide neurodivergent students what they need to flourish

Chelsea Wallis

Photo of a young woman in a pink hijab skateboarding on a ramp, with a building and a flag visible in the background.

video

Sports and games

Young Palestinians find fleeting moments of freedom at a West Bank skate park

13 minutes

Clay animation of a person pondering at a table with a drink can, against a dark background.

video

Personality

A ‘little thief’ turned career criminal recounts a life on the wrong side of the law

5 minutes

A murmuration of starlings forming a large, swirling shape in the early evening sky above silhouetted trees.

essay

Neuroscience

The entangled brain

The brain is much less like a machine than it is like the murmurations of a flock of starlings or an orchestral symphony

Luiz Pessoa

Photo of three people stacking hay bales under a cloudy sky with a pink sunset.

video

Social psychology

What happened when a crypto scam swept over a sleepy town in the Caucasus

18 minutes

A man looking up from the driver’s seat of a yellow vehicle with an open window and side mirror visible.

essay

Philosophy of language

Extraterrestrial tongues

Imagining how aliens might communicate prepares us for first contact and illuminates the nature of our own languages

Nikhil Mahant

Abstract image of a woman’s face with vivid swirls of blue, green, red and yellow on a black background.

video

Human rights and justice

Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home

10 minutes

Photo of a black dog lying on a blue background with a purple button on its left and a yellow button on its right.

video

Language and linguistics

Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?

9 minutes

A satirical painting of a giant man being fed with spoons by tiny attendants.

essay

Information and communication

Methodical banality

Like today’s large language models, 16th-century humanists had techniques to automate writing – to the detriment of novelty

Hannah Katznelson

Photo of a framed picture with colourful string art overlays, featuring plants in the foreground and other photos around.

video

Values and beliefs

Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi

7 minutes

Digital artwork of a skull with holographic elements and text overlays on a dark background.

video

Consciousness and altered states

‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality

7 minutes

Ancient stone sculpture of a reclining female figure on a smooth surface against a grey background.

essay

Thinkers and theories

The truth about love

In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates shared a theory of love from the teachings of a ‘non-Athenian woman’. Who was she really?

Armand D’Angour

A man holding a baby and a woman nearby, a person in the foreground is blurred.

video

Wellbeing

Children of the Rwandan genocide face a unique stigma 30 years later

20 minutes

Black and white photo of oil workers handling equipment on a rig, with oil splashing out from the pipe they are holding.

essay

Gender

Does testosterone make men?

In probing whether there are basic sex differences in humans, a psychologist and a biologist agree to seriously disagree

Cordelia Fine & Carole Hooven

Photo of the Phaistos Disc, an ancient clay tablet with spiral symbols, on a black background.

essay

Language and linguistics

The lonely life of a glyph-breaker

The heroic days of deciphering hieroglyphics and cuneiform make for great stories, but will we ever see that happen again?

Francesco Perono Cacciafoco

Two men on stage acting, one holds an apple on a stick and looks through two glass lenses held by the other man, in dramatic lighting.

essay

Dance and theatre

What actors know

Acting is an ancient and intrinsically human way to establish vibrant connections with one another. And it’s available to us all

John Britton

Photo of two boys sitting in a dilapidated room surrounded by debris with a view of an overgrown outside through a broken wall.

video

War and peace

Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines

22 minutes