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Psychology

Essays and videos offering insights into the self, relationships, cognition and neuroscience
AddictionAgeing and deathChildhood and adolescenceCognition and intelligenceConsciousness and altered statesFamily lifeGender and identityLanguage and linguisticsLife stagesLove and friendshipMental healthMood and emotionNeurodiversityNeurosciencePersonalityPleasure and painPsychiatry and psychotherapySelf-improvementSex and sexualitySleep and dreamsSocial psychologySpiritualityTeaching and learningTechnology and the selfWellbeing
Painting of a person in a striped dress, resting their head on their hand, sitting next to a table with bottles, and a green background.
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essay

Pleasure and pain

Me versus myself

I work against myself through procrastination, distraction and addiction. Why do I consistently sabotage my own life?

Eliane Glaser

Mist-covered city skyline with a calm, reflective body of water in the foreground under a grey sky.
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essay

Pleasure and pain

Eulogy for silence

Tinnitus is like a constant scream inside my head, depriving me of what I formerly treasured: the moments of serene quiet

Diego Ramírez Martín del Campo

Illustration of a person sitting in a room with a bed and various objects. The background is pink, and the objects include a lamp, books, clock, plants, lava lamp, slippers, and a small ball. The person appears to be drawn in a simple, sketch-like style.
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video

Sex and sexuality

After a sextortion scam, Eugene conducts an unblushing survey of masturbation

14 minutes

A surreal artwork depicting floating items, including a woman, child, chair, bullets, and a photo of a family, all set in a dark abstract background.
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video

Human rights and justice

A reporter orphaned by night raids in Afghanistan investigates their cruel legacy

17 minutes

Tourists walking on a foggy road with buses parked on the side and a driver standing beside a bus, partially obstructed by the fog.
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essay

Stories and literature

Solace and saudade

In the face of an inscrutable, indifferent universe, Pessoa suggests we cultivate a certain longing for the elusive horizon

Jonardon Ganeri & Sarah Seymour

A girl in a dress is swinging with the Sagrada Família towers in the background.
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essay

History of ideas

Disorient yourself

Now associated with childhood fun, the swing has a near-universal history of ritual transgression and transformation

Javier Moscoso

A woman and a man are having a conversation on the street, standing in front of old storefronts and a wooden barricade.
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essay

Mood and emotion

In praise of irritation

Unlike anger, irritation has neither glamour nor radicalism on its side. Yet it might just be the mood we need right now

Will Rees

View of a snowy courtyard from above with two people standing near a beige car.
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essay

Mental health

Secrets hurt their holders

Holding back the truth can take a huge toll on your relationships and your mental health. Why? And is there a better way?

Michael Slepian

Sketch of a figure in a hat facing a waterfront with a red sky, accompanied by handwritten notes on the right.
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essay

History

The politics of pain

Medical science can only tell us so much. To understand pain, we need the cultural tools of history, philosophy and art

Rob Boddice

A ballerina adjusting her ballet shoe ribbons, wearing pink tights and pointe shoes against a neutral background.
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video

Dance and theatre

From calluses to burnt shoes, the elegance of ballet is built from the ground up

4 minutes

A person stands on a rocky cliff edge overlooking a vast canyon under a clear blue sky.
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video

Consciousness and altered states

You need to make friends with pain to run through the Grand Canyon and back

5 minutes

Elderly man with grey hair and beard, wearing glasses and a black T-shirt, resting his head against a tree trunk in a forest.
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video

Mood and emotion

Alone on a small island in Belgrade, a father grieves his daughter in quiet solitude

12 minutes

Two women touch hands through a clear plastic barrier, one wearing a mask and gloves, the other smiling and wearing a striped top.
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video

Wellbeing

A unique theatre performance explores what touch means in an age of lockdown

17 minutes

Black and white image of a woman singing passionately into a microphone, with hand raised, against a dark background.
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essay

Music

Music and sex

A song can take you on a journey of ecstatic arousal. Is music imitating sex, inviting it, or something else altogether?

Michael Spitzer

A silhouette of a man in a hat holding a briefcase, standing under a street lamp in front of a house, with bright light illuminating the scene.
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essay

Film and visual culture

Fear not

You might think that horror movies are a delicious, trashy pleasure. But watching them has surprisingly wholesome effects

Mathias Clasen

Person sitting on a bucket in a field, with another person digging nearby and trees in the background.
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video

Nature and landscape

An afternoon with hobbyist diamond miners in Arkansas is a thing of rare beauty

16 minutes

Aerial view of a dimly lit car park at night with scattered vehicles and visible tyre marks on the ground.
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video

Sports and games

After a day’s toil in California’s fields, labourers let loose in street races

9 minutes

Silhouette of a person standing at a window inside a dimly lit building at night against a deep blue sky.
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essay

Pleasure and pain

Apocalypse, please

The COVID-19 pandemic, like other catastrophes before it, got some of us hooked on phobic energy and terror. Why?

Travis Alexander

A vibrant casino exterior with neon lights and swirling ceiling designs in red, orange and white against a twilight sky.
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essay

Mathematics

Mathematics for gamblers

If philosophers and mathematicians struggle with probability, can gamblers really hope to grasp their losing game?

Catalin Barboianu

Photo of a man with a skateboard and white cane walking towards a skate park half-pipe under a cloudy sky, trees in the background
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video

Pleasure and pain

After losing his sight, a skateboarder takes an unexpected path to realising his dreams

12 minutes

Photo of two older women with long hair walking in a garden. One wears a yellow jacket, the other a black and pink jacket with sunglasses.
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video

Love and friendship

After traumatic childhoods, two sisters dedicate their golden years to fun

15 minutes

Photo of two hands gently holding each other against a dark background, evoking a sense of connection and support.
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essay

Neuroscience

The need to touch

The language of touch binds our minds and bodies to the broader social world. What happens when touch becomes taboo?

Laura Crucianelli

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video

Pleasure and pain

The ritualised excess of life aboard a cruise ship is tragic and parodic by turns

10 minutes

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essay

Neuroscience

Nostalgia reimagined

Neuroscience is finding what propaganda has long known: nostalgia doesn’t need real memories – an imagined past works too

Felipe De Brigard