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Love and friendship

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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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

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

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

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

videoHuman rights and justice

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

10 minutes

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

essayThinkers 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

Collage image of a smiling woman in patterned dress with colourful wavy borders set on a beach background.

videoLove and friendship

Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone

5 minutes

Black-and-white photo of a person looking at vintage Honeywell 200 computer tape drives labelled A and B.

videoHistory of technology

Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966

6 minutes

Painting of a serene night scene with a full moon reflecting on a dark blue lake surrounded by silhouettes of rocks and trees.

essayStories and literature

The listening gift

It is the dark matter of conversation, the white space around a poem. For Rilke, listening is receiving the divine

Faith Lawrence

Photo of three women viewed from behind near a lake with trees. One holds a megaphone and wears a colourful embroidered shirt.

videoFamily life

The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them

21 minutes

Photo of a man in a wheelchair on a grass field with another man’s hand resting on the wheelchair’s handle.

videoLove and friendship

For two brothers who rely on one another, love is a daily act of devotion

11 minutes

Sepia photograph of the poet with long curly hair and a full beard and moustache. He wears a white shirt and dark suit, and has a thoughtful expression.

videoStories and literature

To capture grief in poetry is to describe the ineffable. Here’s why Tennyson did it best

8 minutes

Painting of five women working in a field at sunset. Four are bent over tending to the soil, and one stands to the left looking at the sky with a bag on the ground beside her. The sky is a gradient of blue and orange with a visible crescent moon.

essayMetaphysics

The enchanted vision

Love is much more than a mere emotion or moral ideal. It imbues the world itself and we should learn to move with its power

Mark Vernon

Close-up of a person lighting a cigarette with a lighter in a dim, smoky environment.

videoLove and friendship

Love looks a bit different for a chain-smoking couple in a small apartment

11 minutes

Black and white illustration of a man with short curly hair and a beard, wearing a toga-like garment with detailed textures and folds.

videoThe ancient world

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

2 minutes

Elderly man in a cap and jacket sits on concrete steps outdoors holding a cup, with greenery and trees in the background.

videoLove and friendship

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

25 minutes

A colourful close-up of a circular, textured artwork featuring butterflies, birds, and flowers against a blue background.

videoDesign and fashion

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

16 minutes

Line drawing of a woman with short hair and a man with curly hair looking at each other against a plain background.

videoLove and friendship

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

5 minutes

Woman holds a baby while standing on a stone spiral path in a forested area with trees and greenery in the background.

videoBiography 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

essayStories 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

essayMetaphysics

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

essayLove 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

Woman holding a pregnancy test in a bathroom, looking at her reflection in the mirror with a thoughtful expression.

videoFamily life

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

7 minutes

A man with glasses and a beard, smiling and holding up a sketch of a person, seated outside near a brick wall and an open door.

videoLove and friendship

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

7 minutes

Two people on a beach watch the sunset over the water, framed by bicycle wheels in the foreground.

videoLove and friendship

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

9 minutes