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Psychology

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

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

15 minutes

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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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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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Family life

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

7 minutes

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Family life

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

21 minutes

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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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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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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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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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Animals and humans

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

8 minutes

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Life stages

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

33 minutes

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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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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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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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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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Ageing and death

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

19 minutes

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Biography and memoir

What Akiko saw at the centre of the Hiroshima blast, and the indelible mark it left

15 minutes

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Addiction

From back pain to addiction – one man’s struggle with opioids, as told to his sister

14 minutes

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Stories and literature

Leave them alone

Parenting advice from D H Lawrence: don’t smother your children with love. They are more sagacious than you think

Lara Feigel

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Subcultures

The utopian machine

For children like me, growing up in an utopian community, life was a bewildering chaos of freedom and indoctrination

Susanna Crossman

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Love and friendship

The right person

Contemporary wisdom says that happiness is the measure of a marriage. But is that a harmful way of judging relationships?

Joshua Coleman

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Gender and identity

‘When you’re done, you stay human!’ What gender transition means to John

6 minutes