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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

LatestPopular

Photo of a car’s interior at night with motion blur, showing a driver’s arm steering through illuminated streets.

essayIllness and disease

Katie’s story

Frontotemporal dementia is rare and ruthless. When it robbed Katie of her husband at 33, his story became her life’s work

Lynn Hallarman

Photo of a smiling boy with short hair outdoors, viewed through a digital camera frame. Background shows a fence and greenery.

videoChildhood and adolescence

A neglected Dominican sugar town, as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old local

11 minutes

A large, colourful mural on a building, depicting people, with two individuals walking by on the pavement.

essayChildhood and adolescence

Society needs hope

Youths around the world are in a profound crisis of despair. Adults must help them to believe that the future will be better

Carol Graham

Blurry night photo through car window showing police lights and a figure, creating a dramatic scene with blue lighting.

videoDemography and migration

The volunteers who offer a last line of care for migrants at a contentious border

30 minutes

Vintage black and white photo of a woman in a garden sitting beside a large urn with a sleeping dog lying nearby.

essayFamily life

Glorious and mundane

I once exalted in the extraordinary. But as I’ve learned from Virginia Woolf, indelible beauty is also found in the everyday

Diana Saverin

Black and white photo of a thoughtful woman and two children, one holding a crying baby, indoors near wooden doors.

essayEthics

Why love matters most

For Iris Murdoch, morality is not about duties and rules but stopping our ego fantasies and attending to others with love

Cathy Mason

Watercolour and ink collage with a portrait, handwritten text saying ‘Hey, I’m important’ and a small beach photo on top right.

videoConsciousness and altered states

How an artist learned to ‘co-live’ with the distressing voice in her head

6 minutes

Sketch of person holding a pink phone to their ear with minimal facial detail.

videoHistory

In the face of denial, this film uncovers the hidden scars of Indonesia’s 1998 riots

21 minutes

A person in a brown coat sitting alone at a picnic table in an autumn park with fallen leaves around.

essayConsciousness and altered states

A simple shift in focus

Life is often experienced as a demanding, ongoing story. But with a little practice, a new space opens for peaceful presence

James Carmody

Photo of a woman sleeping, resting her head and hand on a large dog, creating a cosy atmosphere.

videoLove and friendship

What does it mean to say goodbye to a creature that doesn’t know you’re leaving?

13 minutes

Photo of two women hugging at an indoor event, one holding a piece of paper

videoLife stages

Grief, healing and laughter coexist at a unique retreat for widows and widowers

15 minutes

Photo of an ocean sunset seen through a round window with a warm sepia tone across the sky and water.

essayLanguage and linguistics

The grammar of a god-ocean

To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness

Eli K P William

A man in a blue shirt playing a saxophone against a dark background.

essayConsciousness and altered states

Kind of confusing

Is consciousness like jazz, something hard to pin down? Or is it more like the biology of dolphins, odd but natural?

Tim Bayne

Yellow slime mould on textured tree bark, showcasing intricate branching patterns.

essayBiology

Memories without brains

Certain slime moulds can make decisions, solve mazes and remember things. What can we learn from the blob?

Matthew Sims

Photo of a man lying on a bed with white sheets, looking peaceful against a blue background.

videoConsciousness and altered states

What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?

12 minutes

Black and white photo of a woman sitting in front of a bookshelf wearing a light blouse and speaking.

videoAnthropology

Margaret Mead explains why the family was entering a brave new world in this 1959 film

29 minutes

Blurry photo of a townscape with unfocused colourful lights strung across buildings in the evening.

videoAgeing and death

Memories of friends and neighbours light the streets of a seaside village in England

11 minutes

Photo of a busy street corner with people gathering outside a cafe named Dante in a city setting on a cloudy day.

essayNeurodiversity

Rethinking adult ADHD

The diagnostic category of adult ADHD is becoming more inclusive. That’s not the same as it being overdiagnosed

Margaret Sibley

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

essayHistory 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.

essayTechnology 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.

videoFamily 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.

essayHistory 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.

essayNeuroscience

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

videoFilm and visual culture

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

5 minutes