When you are looking for social validation, the reactions of two thousand strangers online may have more weight than those of the two friends you are having coffee with.
Nobel Prize-winning research has purported to show that when you split a person's brain in two, you split the mind. New research casts doubt on those findings.
Jean-Paul Sartre once suggested that the moment we realize we are not immortal, we see the meaning of life as an illusion. But perhaps, that's not quite right.
Some people need to be right always. They won’t admit defeat even in the face of compelling contrary evidence. But what does a person achieve by insisting on being always right?
Occasionally, we say hurtful things we don't really mean. We wish we could take it all back but cannot. Yet perhaps, while the past cannot be changed, something can be done.
We often come to embrace the bad parts of our past. For instance, in an interview, a Portland biker reports feeling grateful for an accident that nearly killed him. Why?
We profess to dislike pretentiousness and to prefer authenticity. But often, we do not discourage pretentiousness and may do the opposite: adopt the mannerisms of the snobs.
We imagine that children do not belong to the same species as adults -- that they have needs and desires different from ours. But a child's psychology is rather like our own.
We do not always act in our own interest. There are forces in the human psyche, inner demons, that may propel us to act contrary to reason. What are they? Why do we have them?
We sometimes fail to appreciate the love and friendship of people who value us. Instead, we seek the approval of those less interested in us and our company.
Sometimes, we get involved with the wrong person not due to illusions about the other, but rather, because we forget who we ourselves are. We look in the mirror and see a stranger.
It is sometimes said that a bad childhood damages us. What is true, rather, is that it may prevent us from developing a healthy self, one with an inner reservoir of joy.
We are fragmented beings. You may be a perfectionist cook but a sloppy dresser; practice the violin for 10 hours a day but floss irregularly. What are our personalities, then?