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Psychology

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

An ancient Roman’s hilarious (and perhaps relatable) response to a social snub

2 minutes

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Love and friendship

After his son’s terrorist attack, Azdyne seeks healing – and his granddaughter

25 minutes

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Design and fashion

The ornate, the aromatic, the cruel – Valentine’s cards before the age of Hallmark

16 minutes

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Love and friendship

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

5 minutes

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Biography and memoir

As her world unravels, Pilar wonders at the ‘sacred geometry’ that gives it structure

20 minutes

Three motorcyclists are riding on an empty road winding through English moorland beneath a blue sky
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essay

Stories and literature

Citizens

Devon, 1970s: I’m a rector’s son, hanging out with Boz the biker. My life is about to open up – what does it promise for him?

Tim Pears

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

A woman sits alone in a Parisian cafe with a glass of wine, while the neighbouring tables are full of socialising groups
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Love and friendship

Loved, yet lonely

You might have the unconditional love of family and friends and yet feel deep loneliness. Can philosophy explain why?

Kaitlyn Creasy

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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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Love and friendship

When drawing your muse hundreds of times becomes an exercise in love

7 minutes

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Love and friendship

A decade after his wife was swept away in a tsunami, Yasuo still searches the sea

9 minutes

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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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Mood and emotion

‘Let me dream you into my reality’: memories illuminate an unthinkable isolation

12 minutes

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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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Love and friendship

Skiing blind is a challenge – but it helps to have a loved one to guide you

20 minutes

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essay

Love and friendship

Tainted love

Love is both a wonderful thing and a cunning evolutionary trick to control us. A dangerous cocktail in the wrong hands

Anna Machin

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Information and communication

From mental image to sketch – how memories and emotions conjure up a face

23 minutes

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essay

History of ideas

The love story story

Neither psychology nor anthropology fully understand love: only history sees that it’s all about the time and the telling

Barbara H Rosenwein

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Personality

Art students divulge (and animate) the dating pet peeves they find unforgivable

3 minutes

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Mental health

When crushes become crushing – how to know if you’re in a ‘limerent episode’

4 minutes

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Life stages

Love evolves and death isn’t worth your worry – life lessons from an 88-year-old

7 minutes

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Childhood and adolescence

Attached

From cradle to grave, we are soothed and rocked by attachments – our source of joy and pain, and the essence of who we are

Mostafa El-Kalliny & Zoe R Donaldson

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essay

Love and friendship

Treasure them

Sure, lovers and children are great. But friends are more than ever the heart of happiness, of family and of love itself

Anna Machin