Leading into the July 4th weekend, Todd S. Purdum's article in Vanity Fair discussed Governor Sarah Palin's career and character in some detail.

Strong negative judgments can cause a person mental pain (lawyers call it mental anguish) and result in the individual leaving a job or career.  Did the judgments about Governor Palin made by reporters, bloggers, and pundits just before the July 4th holiday contribute to her resignation? If so, what does that say about such judgments? Read More

In understanding the history of how we judge one another, a key clue comes from personality judgments in primarily oral traditions. Primarily oral people judge others differently than do people who have developed writing. Oral people are dramatically different in their thought processes relative to those who can write. Read More

A new reflective consciousness seems to have emerged in the Axial Age, in which people could begin to see themselves as objective, distinct entities and consider their own motives, feelings, thoughts and acts. But how and why did this transformation occur? Read More

The psychological life of the peoples who lived before 550 BCE in the ancient Middle East, Greece, India, China and elsewhere around the world, was very different from our mental life today.  The written history of the period and other evidence suggest that the people lacked much awareness of their internal thoughts.  At least some modern psychology would not have applied. Read More