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Psychology

Essays and videos offering insights into the self, relationships, cognition and neuroscience
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essay

Ageing and death

Peregrinations of grief

A friend and a falcon went missing. In pain, I turned to ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ – and found a new vision of sorrow and time

Emily Polk

A close-up shot of one woman holding and comforting another grief-stricken woman
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essay

Ageing and death

Witness the pain

When loved ones are traumatically lost, bereaved families become accidental activists by turning grief into grievance

Chris Bobel

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video

Ageing and death

Demystifying death – a palliative care specialist’s practical guide to life’s end

4 minutes

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video

Personality

Why cleaning up crime scenes requires a rare mix of grit and empathy

9 minutes

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video

Family life

Against her father’s warnings, Debra resolves to learn about his time in Auschwitz

4 minutes

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essay

Mood and emotion

When grief doesn’t end

Suffering the sudden death of a loved person leaves some survivors stuck in grief. Can they win their lives back – and how?

Martin W Angler

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video

Death

Toby ponders the inner lives of the sheep that roam atop his parents’ graves

6 minutes

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video

Love and friendship

A decade after his wife was swept away in a tsunami, Yasuo still searches the sea

9 minutes

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video

Ageing and death

When his elderly parents make a suicide pact, Doron struggles to accept their choice

19 minutes

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video

Ageing and death

‘It’s not beautiful, but it’s interesting’ – an ageing nude model surveys her body

4 minutes

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video

Art

A massive art installation attempts to put the COVID-19 deaths in perspective

15 minutes

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video

Ageing and death

Death is a trip – how new research links near-death and DMT experiences

9 minutes

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essay

Ageing and death

Old not Other

Here’s a puzzle: why do we neglect and disdain the one vulnerable group we all eventually will join? Beauvoir had an answer

Kate Kirkpatrick & Sonia Kruks

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video

Stories and literature

A musician and a storyteller collaborate in a daily duet of words and music

5 minutes

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video

Ageing and death

How an end-of-life doula found her vocation as a companion for the dying

7 minutes

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video

Life stages

Love evolves and death isn’t worth your worry – life lessons from an 88-year-old

7 minutes

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essay

Ageing and death

The gender of dementia

Are women really at greater risk from dementia? Until we reckon with social roles and inequalities, it’s impossible to say

Kate Gregorevic

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video

Animals and humans

The joys and heartbreaks of loving a creature who ages faster than you

11 minutes

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video

Illness and disease

As dementia trims the tree of knowledge in John’s brain, music holds firm

12 minutes

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video

Teaching and learning

A retired teacher embarks on a mission to find out what became of a beloved student

16 minutes

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video

Meaning and the good life

What a ‘good death’ can look like, in the quiet company of a compassionate stranger

18 minutes

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idea

Meaning and the good life

Don’t take life so seriously: Montaigne’s lessons on the inner life

Dorian Rolston

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video

Animals and humans

How does Norman, a 16-year-old Shih Tzu, see the pet cloning dilemma?

8 minutes

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idea

Ageing and death

The self in dementia is not lost, and can be reached with care

Muireann Irish