Machiavellians: Gulling the Rubes

How to Handle Master Manipulators

What the Texas School Shooting Suspect's Pins Tell Us

Intense analysis of the shooter's motives by The New York Times and other outlets misses the point.

Incels: When Testosterone Goes Bad

The Incel movement exists because of difficulties in facing Erikson's fifth and sixth stages of psychosocial development.

You Can't Cheat an Honest Person. Or Can You?

Greed makes you gullible -- unless, of course, you are that way already.

Sigmund Freud Hated America: 5 Reasons Why

As a boy, Freud hung a copy of the Declaration of Independence in his room and memorized the Gettysburg Address. As an adult, he came to loathe everything American.

#MeToo: Take Your Hands Off Pandora’s Box!

Transactional analysis explains the current sex scandals as a series of games with established rules and well-defined roles for each participant.

Machiavellians: Self-Made or Born that Way?

Are master manipulators genetically programmed that way, or do they become Machiavellians over time?

Blood and Chocolate

A new NYPD police officer's allegedly violent conduct raises questions about the department's psychological screening of officer candidates.

Machiavellian Marketers

Bad marketing sometimes snares the gullible, but most of us are savvy enough to avoid cons such as “eat all you want and still lose weight!” It’s the good marketing that lures us.

What's Up with the Mad Pooper of Colorado Springs?

Like the Energizer bunny, she keeps going...and going

A Profile of North Korea’s “Dear Respected Comrade Leader"

The Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics has developed a personality and leadership profile of Kim Jong Un.

The Psychopathology of Shakespeare’s Most Evil Villains

And thus I clothe my naked villainy / With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ, / And seem a saint when most I play the devil. — Richard III

The Bronx Hospital Shooter: A Chronic Catathymic Crisis?

Who shoots up a workplace two years after being fired? Someone who is obsessed with that incident, who has ruminated about it, and fantasized about revenge.

Games Master Manipulators Play: Exploiting Your Strengths

You might expect master manipulators to exploit your weaknesses. To conceal their motives, they may need to exploit your strengths instead.

What Drives Suicidal Mass Murderers?

Three recent mass killings by suicidal gunmen reveal the deadly effects of individuals caught up in a catathymic crisis.

Games Master Manipulators Play: Boundary Blindness

How to know when your personal boundaries are being crossed, and what to do about it.

Games Master Manipulators Play: Sandbagging

The difficulty of spotting it makes it a reliable tactic.

A Fool and His or Her Money, Psychologically Speaking

Three cognitive biases that can lead to unwise financial decisions.

Fallingwater: Where Design, Structure, & Psychology Converge

Asked to describe Fallingwater in one word, its owner replied, "Romance." Frank Lloyd Wright used design and structure to evoke psychological reactions.