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Psychology

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

Childhood and adolescence

Striking shadow puppetry illuminates a skater kid’s memories of Boy Scout camp

12 minutes

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video

Technology and the self

A ‘virtual outing’ on Google Maps reveals a treasured image from Diego’s past

6 minutes

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video

Love and friendship

Naira pitches a new sport to her husband in this strange, sweet portrait of marriage

5 minutes

Two dark haired twin girls in tartan dresses look through an unglazed window frame
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essay

Metaphysics

Both one and yet distinct

Being a twin (as our author knows) cracks open our ideas of the perfectly bounded self and might liberate us all

Helena de Bres

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video

Family life

Against her father’s warnings, Debra resolves to learn about his time in Auschwitz

4 minutes

In the foreground a European mother cradles a newborn baby as an Indian woman looks on from the right
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essay

Bioethics

Reproductive technologies

Infertility treatments aim to improve women’s lives. But they risk tying womanhood to the toxic expectation of motherhood

Gulzaar Barn

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video

Home

Whether above a pub or in a castle, our childhood homes leave an indelible mark

15 minutes

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video

Family life

The extraordinary story of a Black Holocaust survivor, as told by his daughter

21 minutes

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essay

Family life

Amazonian childcare

In the eyes of the Runa people, Western kids grow up indulged, over-mothered and incapable of facing outward to the world

Francesca Mezzenzana

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essay

Economic history

Matrimony and the market

The sexual revolution promised new norms of intimacy based on egalitarianism. So far, only the rich have cashed in

Daniel Tutt

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video

Family life

On a whirlwind morning, a couple learns if they’re facing an unplanned pregnancy

7 minutes

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video

Family life

In Rwanda, Sébastien finds traces of personal history in the wake of national tragedy

21 minutes

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essay

Family life

Honey, I sold the kids

We have laws to protect children from factory work. Why aren’t they protected from parents who monetise their lives online?

Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore

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essay

Gender and identity

A manly divorce

Straight men rarely write about the end of their marriages. Our enduring ideas about gender explain this silence

Joshua Coleman

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essay

History

Medieval babycare

From mansplaining about breastfeeding to debates on developmental toys, medieval parenting was full of familiar dilemmas

Katherine Harvey

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video

Gender and identity

‘I didn’t fall in love with a couple of body pieces’ – on marriage and transition

3 minutes

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video

Animals and humans

What happened when one woman raised an abandoned squirrel as her own

8 minutes

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video

Life stages

At 14, Asal is excited about her engagement. Her relatives all have their own opinions

33 minutes

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essay

Personality

Born that way

Confident or shy, our temperament is mostly baked-in from birth. But how that influences our lives is up for grabs

Gina Mireault

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essay

Life stages

Family passages

Each new generation learns from its elders. But familial voices now compete for influence with a chorus of urgent others

Elizabeth Svoboda

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video

Family life

Fifty years ago, a train collided with Jack and Betty’s car. Here’s how they remember it

9 minutes

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video

Virtues and vices

From violent criminal to loving parent – a son’s story of his father’s transformation

23 minutes

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Life stages

An unvarnished, poetic account of a new mother’s struggle to breastfeed

3 minutes

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video

Ageing and death

When his elderly parents make a suicide pact, Doron struggles to accept their choice

19 minutes