Category Archives: Theory

Human nature is a moving target

May 29, 2011 – 8:14 pm

I just caught up with a fascinating discussion on ABC Radio’s Future Tense on what artificial intelligence showdowns like the Turing Test tell us about the evolution of human nature. It sounds like a bit of clichéd subject but the interview with author Brian Christian is full of novel, thoughtful insights into how human nature […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Integrating, Togetherness | Comments (3)

Empathy in shades of grey

May 21, 2011 – 7:24 pm

Scientific American has an insightful and beautifully written article asking whether it is possible to make sense of empathy using brain scans. Neuroscience studies are increasingly focusing on what science calls ‘high level’ concepts and what those outside the field might just call ‘vague’. Empathy is probably not in the ‘vague’ category although it is […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain, Togetherness | Comments (5)

Face to face with psychopathy

May 21, 2011 – 3:26 pm

The Guardian has a curious article where journalist Jon Ronson investigates what it means to be a psychopath and meets a patient diagnosed with psychopathy at one of Britain’s highest security psychiatric hospitals. In popular culture, ‘psychopath’ refers to a crazed killer but in psychiatry it refers to someone with anti-social personality traits along with […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (6)

The psychology of the end of the world

May 20, 2011 – 8:42 pm

I’ve written an article for Slate on tomorrow’s predicted doomsday and how believers cope with the non-arrival of the apocalypse. Although many people are familiar with When Prophecy Fails, a book by psychologist Leon Festinger that charted how a flying saucer cult dealt with the non-arrival of the Armageddon, it’s less widely know that it […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Reasoning | Comments (2)

Grief, mental illness and psychiatry’s sad refrain

May 19, 2011 – 5:51 pm

Scientific American covers a coming shake-up in how grief is defined in relation to mental illness as the forthcoming DSM-5 diagnostic manual aims to radically redefine how mourning is treated by mental health professionals. It’s worth saying that the DSM-5 has yet to be finalised and will not appear until 2013 but the changes to […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in books | Comments (16)

Media addicted to self-fulfilling porn survey shock

May 1, 2011 – 1:59 pm

Dr Petra has an excellent breakdown of a recent UK survey that ran with the finding that a quarter of men are worried about their online porn use. Although the piece looks at the details of this particular headline grabbing story, it really serves as a good critique of almost any media survey about sex, […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in News, Togetherness | Comments (2)

The death of the mind

April 30, 2011 – 3:20 pm

Business Week has an important article on how internet companies are using the massive data sets collected from the minutia of users’ behaviour to influence customer choices. The article is a useful insight into how tech companies are basing their entire profit model on the ability to model and manipulate human behaviour but the implication […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Integrating, Learning | Comments (7)

A history of killing

April 20, 2011 – 1:36 am

The psychology of murder is the topic of a fantastic edition of ABC Radio’s All in the Mind that looks at the changing motivations behind the most serious of crimes. You might think that the reasons for committing murder have been relatively constant across time, even if the perceived necessity has been been changed by […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (3)

Not in your wildest dreams

April 12, 2011 – 3:08 am

Scientific American has just started a new series where scientists describe questions which fascinate them but which they don’t think can be answered by science. The first article is by sleep and dream neuroscientist Robert Stickgold who wonders whether we could ever understand the significance of dreams. The idea: Dreams often feel profoundly meaningful, bizarre […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Integrating | Comments (11)

Slumber therapy

March 27, 2011 – 4:05 am

A delightful moment from a New York Magazine article where a guy who had four psychoanalysts in a row fall asleep on him goes back to each to find out why: I ask him about falling asleep, and he says, cheerfully, “I have no memory of that whatsoever.” This is surprising, considering he passed out […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Integrating | Comments (2)

Relax, it’s just a reversible drug-induced coma

March 4, 2011 – 2:47 am

The New York Times has a fantastic interview with Emery Neal Brown, a neuroscientist and doctor who is trying to understand how anaesthesia works to better understand the brain and to build better drugs. It’s a great interview because he address several of the common beliefs and myths about anaesthesia as well as the challenge […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain, Uncategorized | Comments (4)

Funky shit

February 19, 2011 – 8:41 pm

In the debate about the ability of language to adequately describe conscious experience, jazzed-out rappers The Jungle Brothers came out firmly behind the skeptical position of philosopher of mind Eric Schwitzgebel with their 1997 track ‘Brain’. In the 2007 book Describing Inner Experience? Proponent Meets Skeptic psychologist Russell Hurlburt argued that modern research methods make […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Nonsense | Comments (3)

A strangely effective video

February 13, 2011 – 10:25 pm

Australian science reporter Professor Funk has made a fantastic animated video about the science of the placebo effect that’s three minutes of sheer joy even without an active ingredient. It takes you through the remarkable ways in which the placebo effect differs between different types of pills, perceptions and places and is highly recommended.   […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Integrating | Comments (8)

Five minutes past trauma

February 12, 2011 – 4:12 pm

A new series of ABC Radio National’s All in the Mind has just kicked off with a thoughtful programme about treating traumatised people just after a tragic event. If you’re not familiar with the contentious area of disaster response, you may be surprised to hear that there is no firm evidence that psychological treatment of […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (2)

It’s just something inside my head

February 12, 2011 – 3:06 pm

A remarkably accurate account of the learned helplessness theory of depression as recounted in the lyrics of downbeat hip-hop track ‘Something Inside My Head’ by London based rapper Akala. I wasn’t born this way My condition was learned Once bitten twice shy I don’t wanna be burned When you travel a passage That leaves your […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Other People | Comments (11)

A liberal dose of controversy

February 8, 2011 – 12:51 pm

The New York Times covers an important and provocative speech made at a recent big name social psychology conference where the keynote speaker Jonathan Haidt questioned whether social psychologists are blind ‘to the hostile climate they’ve created for non-liberals’. It’s a brave move and he brings up some important points about the narrow perspective the […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in News, Togetherness | Comments (20)
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