Have you ever walked into a dark room, flipped the light switch—and nothing happened? That jolt of confusion reflects your brain’s predictive model colliding with unexpected input. In that split second, you... Read more »
Stories are powerful things! For millennia, human beings have been listening, learning, and sharing stories that help make sense of the world. Storytelling is foundational to our understanding of our world, ourselves,... Read more »
“It was [multiple] years of them being held hostage — wrongful detention, kidnapping, whatever you want to call it. It was pretty much a nightmare, and I’m glad it’s behind us. The... Read more »
We all experience some adversity in life, but what makes some of us better able to walk away from trauma and suffering seemingly unscathed? Resilience defines our ability to resist adverse outcomes... Read more »
As Forest Gump’s Mom used to say, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get”. She’s right, of course: Life can be random and unpredictable.... Read more »
In Book IX of the Politeia (commonly mistranslated as “The Republic”), Plato describes the tyrannical constitution as the most disordered form of governance in both cities and psyches. The tyrant rules by... Read more »
I’ve spent the last few years thinking about intelligence, looking to understand human, artificial, and the strange space between them. Most of the debate is around capability. How fast can it reason?... Read more »
I recall the first full-time job I ever had. I was a young graduate joining Alcan, an aluminium company that made commercial aluminium windows and doors for the architectural building industry. I... Read more »
Do you want to know a secret? Most of us live lives that are remarkably similar to those of superstars. As a psychologist working in Newport Beach, California, I have had the... Read more »
For many trauma survivors, tattoos are not about aesthetics.They are about choice and meaning. Trauma is not only something that happens to the mind. It happens to the body. Long after the... Read more »