Read our posts about Society

07Oct

Is Your Brain Male or Female?

Terri Apter

men, society, women

Mind

BBC Horizon's recent programme, “Is your brain male or female?”  made a valiant yet narrow minded attempt at measure and reason. I offer this blog to anyone who remains as riled as I by Michael Mosley’s acceptance of Simon Baron-Cohen’s carefully paired claim that, “The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems,” and, “The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy.” The first evidence cluster is derived from animal behaviour.  For example, male great apes engage in more play fighting than female great apes, and...
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06Oct

Bare Reality: 100 Women and their Breasts

Laura Dodsworth

society, women

Body

There has been so much public debate about breasts recently, from Free the Nipple to No More Page 3, from breastfeeding selfies on Facebook to Rihanna on the red carpet. I think the time has never been better to hear how women really feel about their breasts, and to see how they really look.  I have always been fascinated by the dichotomy between women’s personal lives and how they are depicted by the media; between how we feel about breasts privately and how they are presented for public consumption. We see images of breasts everywhere in the media and yet...
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02Oct

Vincent Deary: Why Change is So Difficult

Vincent Deary

change, emotions, psychology, self, society

Mind

Author Vincent Deary discusses the difficulties of change and habit, and the release of his new book 'How We Are'.
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30Sep

Men In Therapy: Why Are We Holding Back?

Andrew Samuels

counselling, men, mensmentalhealth, society, therapy

Therapists

The times are changing, 'man-up' culture is becoming a thing of the past, so why are men still so severely under-represented in therapy asks Andrew Samuels.
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17Sep

Does Religion Have a Role in Therapy?

Sarah Royle

counselling, society, spirituality, therapy, wellbeing

Therapists

Sarah Royle is surprised to find that religion is left out of client assessment tools, she argues that therapists must be aware of belief systems.
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17Sep

Why Do Young British Men Become Jihadis?

Sue Cowan-Jenssen

psychology, society

Therapists

The reasons why any young person leaves their home, family and friends to go and fight in a foreign country will always be complex to unravel.  It does seem incomprehensible that someone who has been raised and educated in the UK with no history of violence would be willing to get involved in acts of unspeakable brutality and yet we are told that hundreds have made that choice. There are clearly powerful global forces in play and we need the input from political theory, theology, history, social science and of course psychology to make some sense of it.  Yet, as a...
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03Sep

We All Use Sexist Language, Women Too

Terri Apter

men, society, women

Relationships

Adjectives have now become the scapegoat for a sexist culture - these naughty words are seen to be drenched in misogyny.  First “bossy” came under fire; now “feisty” is targeted. Forget feisty's positive meaning - apparently the fact that it is commonly used to describe women provides sufficient proof of bias and bad intent. When I went through the list of additional 'women only' words presented in The Telegraph Wonder Woman, I felt the frisson of easy recognition that often accompanies what psychologists call the 'confirmation bias': it is much easier to think...
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10Jul

Don't Judge Me For Not Getting Drunk With Work Mates

Claudine Levy

career, friendship, self, society, university

Work

I realised that binge drinking wasn’t for me during my Fresher’s Week at university. This is the infamous time in every young adult’s life which consists of masochistically getting bladdered repeatedly, in the hope of forming some lasting bonds of friendship with a group of petrified fellow students. All so that we could LOL about our collective hangovers and embarrassing hook-ups of the morning after the night before. Of course the natural antidote to our terror about being alone was to glug as much poison as humanly possible. Away from home, and far from the...
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09Jul

How to Manage Your Online Presence

Anne Wilson

career, self, socialmedia, society, work

Work

Learn how to manage your online presence, so that it doesn't hold back your career says education consultant Anne Wilson
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11Jun

Beauty: What Lies Beneath the Makeup

Edyta Wanic

society, women

Soul

Inspired by the media coverage of the no-makeup selfie campaign by Cancer Research UK, I decided to research the influence of makeup on women’s lives by setting myself up as guinea pig for my student paper at the University of Warwick.   One day I went out barefaced and the next I wore noticeably more makeup than usual. How would I feel? And how would other people respond to me? I normally wear minimal makeup, but the idea of going out makeup-free even for a day made me feel uncomfortable.  I was concerned about looking unprofessional at work and...
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