When our children come to us with a problem, we usually want to help them. So we console, interpret, advise, distract or praise. Other times, we feel we must teach …

You buy a sports car, start hitting the gym and have an affair: It’s the stereotypical midlife crisis, one we’ve seen played out both onscreen and in real life. Although …

Everything we sense in our external and internal worlds has a distinct subjective quality. Even routine acts such as reading a book or trying to recall a childhood friend’s name …

A little electrical brain stimulation can go a long way in boosting memory. The key is to deliver a tiny pulse of electricity to exactly the right place at exactly …

Psychologists continue to grapple over whether standing like Superman changes the mind—and the body Every year, people at hundreds of schools and workplaces around the world are taught how to …

Imagine throwing a baseball and not being able to tell exactly where it’ll go, despite your ability to throw accurately. Say that you are able to predict only that it …

Antisocial personality disorder is diagnosed based on meeting criteria described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual on Mental Disorders, the book that mental health professionals use to assess patients. Although …

Parents often say that they don’t mind what their children do in life just as long as they are happy. Happiness and pleasure are almost universally seen as among the …

From medication to recreational and spiritual substances, drugs offer us respite from pain, open opportunities for mental exploration, and escape from – or into – altered psychological states. They are …

A delusion of grandeur is a false or unusual belief about one’s greatness. A person may believe, for instance, that they are famous, can end world wars, or that they …

Too many depictions of autistic people rely on tired clichés. The neurotypical world needs to take note of our own voices. I found myself at a lunch table recently with …

By studying rats in a smarter way, scientists are finally learning something useful about why some drinkers become addicted and others don’t. For Markus Heilig, the years of dead ends …

Should angry people act out how they feel? The popular idea is that venting your anger helps get rid of it. There’s even a woman in San Diego who makes …

Perhaps the draw of roller coasters is the enjoyment of the visceral sensation of fear itself, much like watching a horror movie. Roller coasters may seem like a very modern …