The Penguin’s Means, Ends, and Morality
‘The Penguin’ compels us to interrogate our morality: do we treat others in our lives only as means to an end?
psychology
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The Art of Psychological Warfare
From marketing manipulation to all-out psychological warfare, Stories Are Weapons clarifies how our world – and worldview – is seldom our own.
Patric Gagne Calls for Empathy in ‘Sociopath: A Memoir’
Sociopath author Patric Gagne asks readers to reconsider their perceptions of sociopathy, arguing that people who struggle to feel empathy still deserve to receive it.
Biography ‘Saving Freud’ Tells of Struggles with Freud’s Stubborn Denial
Andrew Nagorski’s engrossing biography, Saving Freud, brings forth the dangerous power of denial.
How Beauty Transcends Pore Count
From stone axes to laundry detergent packages, Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh demonstrate how beauty has long guided human behavior. Their lovely book, Beauty explores the evolutionary purpose behind humanity's oldest muse.
‘What Is Sex?’ Can Be Frustrating Sometimes
In What Is Sex Alenka Zupančič provides a brief, difficult, yet ultimately rewarding look at the “otherness” of sex as an act, identity, and communication.
Are You Paying Attention? ‘The Distracted Mind’
Multi-tasking on your smart phone consumes too many resources, including memory, and can cause the system to "choke". Imagine what it does to your brain.
‘Popular’: You Are Not Fated to Be Disliked
Adolescent psychologist Mitch Prinstein's new study of popularity, Popular, confirms the worst and hopes for the best.
Rethinking the Closure of the Asylums in the Age of Community Care
Barbara Taylor's "bin memoir", as she terms it, tells a story of neglect, dysfunction, and failed expectations. She recovered; the mental health care system didn't.
Extinction of Identity in the Persona Series
Sometimes growing up can feel a little like killing yourself. The Persona video games capture that extinction of identity.
The Banality of Evil in ‘Experimenter’
Michael Almereyda’s knotty, intellectually playful film about Stanley Milgram’s chilling 1961 experiments asks why so many people seemed so unwilling to accept his conclusions.