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Psychology

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

Illustration of two people observing ants on a forest floor with a textured tree background.

video

Family life

One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor

10 minutes

A woman on a sofa injecting her abdomen surrounded by stuffed toys on a shelf.

video

Technology and the self

Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California

24 minutes

Illustration of a saucepan on a stove with raw meat and ginger, a pot lid is nearby on the right.

video

Family life

The stream-of-consciousness thoughts and memories that emerge while cooking a meal

5 minutes

A painting of two girls with long hair each holding peacock feathers standing in front of a textured, muted background.

video

Family life

The precious family keepsakes that hold meaning for generations

10 minutes

Painting of a child in a red dress with arms raised standing beside an adult in a pink dress against a dark background.

video

Childhood and adolescence

Marmar is living through a devastating war – but she’d rather tell you about her new dress

8 minutes

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

video

Love and friendship

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

11 minutes

A young girl in a pink dress stands on a step, holding the hand of an adult. Four adults are partially visible around her.

essay

Biography and memoir

The adoption paradox

Even happy families cannot avoid the reality – my reality – that adoption is predicated on transacting the life of a child

Fiona Sampson

Open books arranged in a grid with pages featuring bright, hand-painted floral designs, around a drawing of a loaf of bread.

video

Rituals and celebrations

Flirtation, negotiation and vodka – or how to couple up in 1950s rural Poland

5 minutes

Artwork depicting a family group composed of angular lines and triangles, some but not all coloured, on a paper background

essay

Family life

A patchwork family

After my marriage failed, I strove to create a new family – one made beautiful by the loving way it’s stitched together

Lily Dunn

Illustration of three scouts in uniforms with red neckerchiefs, one wearing a hat. They have different facial expressions and are sitting in a row.

video

Childhood and adolescence

Striking shadow puppetry illuminates a skater kid’s memories of Boy Scout camp

12 minutes

A photo collage with stone buildings, a wooden door, a metal gate, and residential structures with plants in the background.

video

Technology and the self

A ‘virtual outing’ on Google Maps reveals a treasured image from Diego’s past

6 minutes

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

video

Love and friendship

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

5 minutes

Two dark haired twin girls in tartan dresses look through an unglazed window frame

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

Illustration of a person with glasses looking concerned, with an “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign, symbolising a concentration camp, in the background.

video

Family life

Against her father’s warnings, Debra resolves to learn about his time in Auschwitz

4 minutes

In the foreground a European mother cradles a newborn baby as an Indian woman looks on from the right

essay

Bioethics

Reproductive technologies

Infertility treatments aim to improve women’s lives. But they risk tying womanhood to the toxic expectation of motherhood

Gulzaar Barn

A shopfront with “O’DEA’S” in gold letters, two windows above with flower boxes holding pink flowers, and the number 66 on the right side.

video

Home

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

15 minutes

Black and white photo of a Black man in a trench coat walking, with a few other white men in suits visible in the background. He compellingly looks into the camera.

video

Family life

The extraordinary story of a Black Holocaust survivor, as told by his daughter

21 minutes

Four children are playing on and around wooden steps outside a raised house in a rural area, with logs and foliage in the background.

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

A man and a woman with tattoos are standing in a kitchen, one shirtless and the other in a blue top, both in a contemplative mood.

essay

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

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

video

Family life

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

7 minutes

Man looking up while shielding his face from the sun with his hand, casting shadows on his face, in an outdoor setting with a dirt ground.

video

Family life

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

21 minutes

A woman and two girls in blue dresses with cat-ear headbands, smiling and taking a selfie outdoors.

essay

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

Construction workers sitting and standing around, some wearing hard hats, during a break outside a building, with a temporary orange safety fence visible.

essay

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

Medieval illustration showing a woman in bed, a child in a bassinet, and three adults interacting with children in a room with a patterned wall.

essay

History

Medieval babycare

From mansplaining about breastfeeding to debates on developmental toys, medieval parenting was full of familiar dilemmas

Katherine Harvey