Psychology
The mind-body conundrum
I’m committed this winter to too many expensive building projects at once. As the balloon of my bank balance drifts…
The folly of psychology
A young Chinese girl, at school in an English-speaking country, approached me after I gave a talk at a conference…
The customer isn’t always far-right
One of Dominic Cummings’s many insights in the run-up to the Brexit referendum was that ‘most people were both more…
Adrift in the world: My Sister and Other Lovers, by Esther Freud, reviewed
A sequel to Hideous Kinky sees the two sisters Lucy and Bea, still close to their bohemian mother, trying (and failing) to negotiate life on their own terms as adults
The case for a daily limit on social media posts
A few years ago, my old school magazine featured a pupil’s brief account of a geography field trip. Before the…
The nightmare of ‘maladaptive daydreaming’
At the beginning of the spring term of my second year at university, a French boy called Xavier looked up…
Seeking forgiveness for gluttony, sloth and other deadly sins
The neurologist Guy Leschziner explores the medical conditions that might underlie extremes of human behaviour in a fascinating study that combines biology and psychology
How to buy a house that isn’t on the market
There are many, mutually reinforcing causes of the property crisis: it is too easy to borrow; there are too many…
Reliving the terror of the Bataclan massacre
Emmanuel Carrère knows when to let the horrors speak for themselves in his moving, hard-hitting account of the trial of the perpetrators
Is protest counterproductive?
If I had my life again and was asked to choose a superpower, I’d like to come back as one…
The myth of collective wisdom
After 250 years of American independence, a nation home to many of the smartest and most talented people in the…
There’s much to be said for nostalgia
Instead of condemning it as dangerous fantasy, two new books argue that we should welcome nostalgia as ‘emotional armour’ in a fast-changing world
Why today’s youth is so anxious and judgmental
In a well-evidenced diatribe, Jonathan Haidt accuses the creators of smartphone culture of rewiring childhood and changing human development on an unimaginable scale
Have we all become more paranoid since the pandemic?
Covid-19 proved devastating to our self-confidence and faith in others, says Daniel Freeman, who describes the ‘corrosive’ effects of mistrust on individuals and society
The beauty of mid-range products
Once or twice, when on a crowded overnight flight, I have taken a sneaky stroll through the different cabins for…
The dirty tricks brigade
Scott Shapiro describes five major hacks – the most serious of which, the creation of the Mirai botnet, was the work of three young men hoping to make a few quick bucks
Tribal loyalties
In his ‘journey into the psychology of belonging’, Michael Bond focuses on the positive side of tribalism, leaving its darker aspects mostly unexplored
Our private terrors
Every summer, during our holiday in Orkney, there is a moment of panic. We’re standing on a dizzying cliff –…
Have I cured my arachnophobia?
I’ve been an arachnophobe my whole life. I can’t remember a time when videos of spiders, or even photos or…
The rise of the wimps
I was extra pleased to have swerved the modern curse that is Wordle when I read that ‘sensitive’ words have…
Don’t make war in Ukraine about Putin’s mental health
There was a time when supposedly serious commentators on world affairs used to at least feign historical knowledge. They might…
Seeing is believing
In Jake’s Thing, Kingsley Amis gave it a name: he called it ‘the inverted pyramid of piss’: ‘One of [Geoffrey…
The good side of guilt
I do not know anyone in the Sackler family. I wouldn’t even have heard of them were it not for…
Why I don’t walk under ladders
Well, I did warn you. As I typed my column last week on the imminent end of Covid I said…
Work in progress
If I could lift one thing from younger generations, unpeel one idea from their anxious minds, it would be the…
