Mind and Psychology

Ugly Truths

The politics of the mad memoir. 

Psychic Numbing

For Robert Jay Lifton, treating veterans’ trauma was an antiwar tool. How did PTSD, the diagnosis he helped create, come to accommodate state violence?

Who’s Afraid of Frantz Fanon?

Long decried by liberals and conservatives alike, the Martinican psychiatrist remains one of the most piercing critics of colonialism.

Our Avatars, Ourselves

Generative AI has made it possible to create lifelike models of real people. Should we?

Could a Large Language Model Be Conscious?

Within the next decade, we may well have systems that are serious candidates for consciousness.

The Fake News about Fake News

In Foolproof, psychologist Sander van der Linden compares misinformation to viral infection—and claims to have a vaccine.

Father of War

My son’s violent illness humbled my sense of control and transformed my understanding of what it means to parent.

You Owe Me an Argument

Epiphanies can prompt us to view the world differently, a new book contends. But they are no substitute for ethical and political debate.

Just Wear Your Smile

The gender politics of Positive Psychology valorize the nuclear family and heterosexual monogamy.

Mental Illness Is Not in Your Head

Decades of biological research haven’t improved diagnosis or treatment. We should look to society, not to the brain.

What Good Can Dreaming Do?

Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven and the radical imagination

The Shocking School

The Judge Rotenberg Center, a Massachusetts school, still uses electric shock therapy to punish disabled students. How can an entire field of mental health accept this?

Imagine the Worst

How philosophical thinking can make truthfulness possible even when the truth can barely be fathomed.

UFOs and the Boundaries of Science

This summer, an intelligence report and a new Harvard research project have renewed the public’s interest in UFOs. But neither is likely to change many minds.

The Politics of White Anxiety

Trump is only the latest to exploit it. A new path forward must address the structures that sustain it.

Our Identities, Ourselves?

Adhering to a particular sexual or gender identity may mean abandoning the things that make us most unique.

The Why of the World

Allured by the promise of Big Data, science has shortchanged causal explanation in favor of data-driven prediction. But ultimately we must ask why.

Don’t Overthink It

A new book wants us to navigate life’s crossroads with the precision of a military exercise. But personal decisions are more difficult than even the most consequential political decisions.

Who’s Got Personality?

The Myers-Briggs Bias: An Interview with Merve Emre

Programming My Child

Through the experience of parenting his daughter, a software developer came to see Google and Facebook as the first digital children. 

Talking about Death

End-of-Life Care and Assisted Suicide

The Friendship that Changed Economics

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman transformed how we think about economics and human behavior.

Let Loose the Line

Protest is not merely a matter of personal awakening, but of organizing and mobilizing the power needed to change social relations.

One Long Poem

A stunning trove of letters from Elizabeth Bishop to her therapist sheds light on the personal secrets that shaped her poetry.

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