...looks back

Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater on what the forgotten story of Laura Bridgman tells us about the astonishing flexibility of human communication.

A life in cybernetics

Bernard Scott (pictured, then and now) with a look back.

Our storytelling nature

Jonathan Gottschall on the Heider-Simmel experiment as an illustration of the story paradox.

The human world is made of stories, not people. The people the stories use to tell themselves are not to be blamed. - David Mitchell, Ghostwritten

A more humane approach

Paul Williams on the life and work of Jack Tizard, a pioneer of community services for people with learning disabilities.

Books as friends

Keith Oatley wonders whether Marcel Proust might stand alongside William James as a psychologist, and how fiction may be important for us.

Marcel Proust considered that À la Recherche du Temps Perdu was psychology extended over time. He started this seven-book novel in 1909 and was absorbed in writing it until he died in...

Forbidden histories

Callum E. Cooper interviews Andreas Sommer (pictured) on the importance of historical awareness for psychology.

Self-taught Psychologist and pioneer

Dr Ingeborg Lasser on the life and influence of Albert W. Wolters.

Albert William Wolters (1883-1961) described himself as an adamant reader as well as a communicative and compassionate teacher, who deeply enjoyed debate. As Professor of Psychology, one of...

Merchants of light

Richard Brown looks to lessons from the history of open science in order to move beyond ideals and technology.

Francis Huxley and the human condition

Ron Roberts and Theodor Itten.

Francis Huxley was the most intellectually adventurous person that I’ve ever met.
David Napier

Francis Huxley, born in 1923, was the son of Julian and the nephew of Aldous Huxley....

Demystifying attachment

Robbie Duschinsky with part of an untold story.

John Bowlby, the founder of attachment theory, was a prolific letter writer, corresponding regularly with leading figures across disciplines including psychiatry, developmental psychology,...

The harmonic healing houses of Turkey

Asude Ucal revisits the Darüsiffas.

The father of British neuropsychology

Barbara A. Wilson on Oliver Zangwill.

The Rorschach Test at 100

The Executive Board of the British Rorschach Society – Kari Carstairs, Justine McCarthy Woods, Marc Desautels and Kevin Lambe – trace the history of the often controversial test in this country, and provide an outline of its use today.

No passive tellers of their past

Jennifer O’Mahoney on narrative psychology and historical institutional abuse.

Narrative psychology allows us to look back at historical abuses by focusing on the important role of personal stories for social change, grounding research in people’s experiences and how...

The aftermath of the Hans Asperger exposé

Rabbi David Ariel Sher on implications for psychologists.

The kingdom of dogs

Matthew Adams revisits Pavlov’s labs from a dog’s perspective.

We have all heard of Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), the legendary Russian physiologist turned psychologist. He’s famous for the discovery of learning through association that...

Psychological assessment and ‘the lost clinicians’

Jack Chalkley revisits what Monte Shapiro offers clinicians who doubt whether their assessments capture what is personal and vital in their patients’ distress.

Inside the asylum

We gather links from the archives of The Psychologist and Research Digest, and elsewhere.

Shining a light on ‘what asylums were’

Jonathon Rutherford on the atrocity of mental health care in the early 19th century.

Celebrating the Mind Changers

We collect links to Claudia Hammond's radio series, and our related coverage.

Needle girls and motiveless malingerers

Sarah Chaney on gender, self-harm and attention-seeking behaviour.

A history of stigma

Kellye McBride on how Foucault’s ideas around confinement and civilisation can help to change views of mental illness.

Queer approaches to depathologisation

In this 'long read' chapter from her new book 'Queer Ink: A Blotted History Towards Liberation', Katherine Hubbard considers the contributions of Evelyn Hooker and June Hopkins.