Aaron Balick 🍉
@aaronbalick.com
Leading voice on how tech & culture shape the psyche. Psychotherapist | Consultant | Psych writer at GQ | Keynote speaker | Author of The Psychodynamics of Social Networking | aaronbalick.com
Pinned
Why Doomscrolling is Secretly a Search for Hope
After finding myself in a doomscroll-spiral, I realised I wasn’t chasing disaster but reassurance – I was hopescrolling.
open.substack.com
Caught yourself doomscrolling again? You may actually be seeking reassurance - not doom. Why doomscrolling is actually hopescrolling: open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
Psychotherapists learn a lot of theory and a fair bit of technique. But primarily we are trained to listen - really deeply listen. Only once you’ve listened deeply does the rest come into play.
AI doesn’t listen. AI compiles.
AI doesn’t listen. AI compiles.
February 9, 2026 at 6:48 PM
Psychotherapists learn a lot of theory and a fair bit of technique. But primarily we are trained to listen - really deeply listen. Only once you’ve listened deeply does the rest come into play.
AI doesn’t listen. AI compiles.
AI doesn’t listen. AI compiles.
Even cultified minds eventually have to encounter the reality principle.
Sadly for them, this encounter usually results in a concussion.
Sadly for them, this encounter usually results in a concussion.
February 9, 2026 at 7:53 PM
Even cultified minds eventually have to encounter the reality principle.
Sadly for them, this encounter usually results in a concussion.
Sadly for them, this encounter usually results in a concussion.
Psychotherapists learn a lot of theory and a fair bit of technique. But primarily we are trained to listen - really deeply listen. Only once you’ve listened deeply does the rest come into play.
AI doesn’t listen. AI compiles.
AI doesn’t listen. AI compiles.
February 9, 2026 at 6:48 PM
Psychotherapists learn a lot of theory and a fair bit of technique. But primarily we are trained to listen - really deeply listen. Only once you’ve listened deeply does the rest come into play.
AI doesn’t listen. AI compiles.
AI doesn’t listen. AI compiles.
Funny how even the most incompetent company with a shambolic HR dept. would have had no choice but to sack Trump years ago - how many employment tribunals would be underway? And yet there he is, every single day, not only at work, but the face of the “company”.
February 6, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Funny how even the most incompetent company with a shambolic HR dept. would have had no choice but to sack Trump years ago - how many employment tribunals would be underway? And yet there he is, every single day, not only at work, but the face of the “company”.
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
Save me from my nerdy inclinations! “Applied Psychodynamics”s is accurate but perhaps too academic.
I’m looking for a more accessible title for my newsletter. Participate in my poll and please help me out!
Suggestions welcome too:
open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
I’m looking for a more accessible title for my newsletter. Participate in my poll and please help me out!
Suggestions welcome too:
open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
Help me with my new newsletter title!
Applied Psychodynamics is what I do best, but I'm told the title is too broad and somewhat off-putting! I'm game to try something new, care to pitch in?
open.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 12:46 PM
Save me from my nerdy inclinations! “Applied Psychodynamics”s is accurate but perhaps too academic.
I’m looking for a more accessible title for my newsletter. Participate in my poll and please help me out!
Suggestions welcome too:
open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
I’m looking for a more accessible title for my newsletter. Participate in my poll and please help me out!
Suggestions welcome too:
open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
Save me from my nerdy inclinations! “Applied Psychodynamics”s is accurate but perhaps too academic.
I’m looking for a more accessible title for my newsletter. Participate in my poll and please help me out!
Suggestions welcome too:
open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
I’m looking for a more accessible title for my newsletter. Participate in my poll and please help me out!
Suggestions welcome too:
open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
Help me with my new newsletter title!
Applied Psychodynamics is what I do best, but I'm told the title is too broad and somewhat off-putting! I'm game to try something new, care to pitch in?
open.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 12:46 PM
Save me from my nerdy inclinations! “Applied Psychodynamics”s is accurate but perhaps too academic.
I’m looking for a more accessible title for my newsletter. Participate in my poll and please help me out!
Suggestions welcome too:
open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
I’m looking for a more accessible title for my newsletter. Participate in my poll and please help me out!
Suggestions welcome too:
open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
Caught yourself doomscrolling again? You may actually be seeking reassurance - not doom. Why doomscrolling is actually hopescrolling: open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
Why Doomscrolling is Secretly a Search for Hope
After finding myself in a doomscroll-spiral, I realised I wasn’t chasing disaster but reassurance – I was hopescrolling.
open.substack.com
February 4, 2026 at 5:56 PM
Caught yourself doomscrolling again? You may actually be seeking reassurance - not doom. Why doomscrolling is actually hopescrolling: open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
“You have a duty to perform. Do anything else, do any number of things, occupy your time fully, and yet, if you do not do this task, all your time will have been wasted.”
- Rumi
- Rumi
February 4, 2026 at 8:33 PM
“You have a duty to perform. Do anything else, do any number of things, occupy your time fully, and yet, if you do not do this task, all your time will have been wasted.”
- Rumi
- Rumi
Caught yourself doomscrolling again? You may actually be seeking reassurance - not doom. Why doomscrolling is actually hopescrolling: open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
Why Doomscrolling is Secretly a Search for Hope
After finding myself in a doomscroll-spiral, I realised I wasn’t chasing disaster but reassurance – I was hopescrolling.
open.substack.com
February 4, 2026 at 5:56 PM
Caught yourself doomscrolling again? You may actually be seeking reassurance - not doom. Why doomscrolling is actually hopescrolling: open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...
Whenever it comes down to the wire - every time life confronts me with a reality I haven’t chosen or don’t want - I return to Viktor Frankl and remember (to paraphrase):
“It isn’t about what I expect from life, but what life expects from me.”
“It isn’t about what I expect from life, but what life expects from me.”
February 3, 2026 at 7:26 PM
Whenever it comes down to the wire - every time life confronts me with a reality I haven’t chosen or don’t want - I return to Viktor Frankl and remember (to paraphrase):
“It isn’t about what I expect from life, but what life expects from me.”
“It isn’t about what I expect from life, but what life expects from me.”
Jeffrey Epstein to Peter Thiel: “Brexit is just the beginning.”
Definitely seems like they destroyed the country on purpose.
February 2, 2026 at 9:24 PM
Jeffrey Epstein to Peter Thiel: “Brexit is just the beginning.”
The fact that Liberals are highlighting the constitutional right to carry firearms while Republicans are framing the holding of such arms as evidence of domestic terrorism, is giving me whiplash.
1/2
1/2
January 25, 2026 at 7:03 PM
The fact that Liberals are highlighting the constitutional right to carry firearms while Republicans are framing the holding of such arms as evidence of domestic terrorism, is giving me whiplash.
1/2
1/2
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
We’re reminded that Nazis got and retained power, not because they had magic propaganda or because they hid their crimes, but because a significant part of the population wanted them to have power.
President Trump, “You haven’t manufactured our current national ugliness; you’ve simply revealed it and leveraged it.“
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
Thank You, President Trump
Dear President Trump,
open.substack.com
January 25, 2026 at 11:39 AM
We’re reminded that Nazis got and retained power, not because they had magic propaganda or because they hid their crimes, but because a significant part of the population wanted them to have power.
We’re reminded that Nazis got and retained power, not because they had magic propaganda or because they hid their crimes, but because a significant part of the population wanted them to have power.
President Trump, “You haven’t manufactured our current national ugliness; you’ve simply revealed it and leveraged it.“
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
Thank You, President Trump
Dear President Trump,
open.substack.com
January 25, 2026 at 11:39 AM
We’re reminded that Nazis got and retained power, not because they had magic propaganda or because they hid their crimes, but because a significant part of the population wanted them to have power.
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
President Trump, “You haven’t manufactured our current national ugliness; you’ve simply revealed it and leveraged it.“
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
Thank You, President Trump
Dear President Trump,
open.substack.com
January 24, 2026 at 10:11 PM
President Trump, “You haven’t manufactured our current national ugliness; you’ve simply revealed it and leveraged it.“
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
President Trump, “You haven’t manufactured our current national ugliness; you’ve simply revealed it and leveraged it.“
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
Thank You, President Trump
Dear President Trump,
open.substack.com
January 24, 2026 at 10:11 PM
President Trump, “You haven’t manufactured our current national ugliness; you’ve simply revealed it and leveraged it.“
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
Must Read.
open.substack.com/pub/johnpavl...
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
Four-time Grammy Award nominee Jesse Welles performs his song "Join Ice."
Bob Dylan once said a single folk singer could defeat an entire army. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our man.
Bob Dylan once said a single folk singer could defeat an entire army. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our man.
January 24, 2026 at 9:10 AM
Four-time Grammy Award nominee Jesse Welles performs his song "Join Ice."
Bob Dylan once said a single folk singer could defeat an entire army. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our man.
Bob Dylan once said a single folk singer could defeat an entire army. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our man.
Board of Peace?
I think you mean
Bored of Sleaze
I think you mean
Bored of Sleaze
January 22, 2026 at 9:28 PM
Board of Peace?
I think you mean
Bored of Sleaze
I think you mean
Bored of Sleaze
It seems that in America, if you have a conscience, you’re a leftist agitator.
January 22, 2026 at 6:59 PM
It seems that in America, if you have a conscience, you’re a leftist agitator.
“A man engrossed in himself is neither brother nor kinsman.”
January 21, 2026 at 9:41 PM
“A man engrossed in himself is neither brother nor kinsman.”
Poor Winston Smith (1984) could only be persuaded to say that 2 + 2 = 5 when a starving rat was caged to his face gunning to rip the flesh from his skull while he watched.
Republicans just need Caroline to say so.
Republicans just need Caroline to say so.
Karoline Leavitt is denying that Trump mixed up Greenland and Iceland multiple times during his speech today.
January 21, 2026 at 9:09 PM
Poor Winston Smith (1984) could only be persuaded to say that 2 + 2 = 5 when a starving rat was caged to his face gunning to rip the flesh from his skull while he watched.
Republicans just need Caroline to say so.
Republicans just need Caroline to say so.
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
The sense of self is not intrinsic, it emerges through relationships woth others.
In an age where we relate with machines on a daily basis, the self does not go unaffected. Let me introduce you to the algorithmic self:
substack.com/@draaronb/no...
In an age where we relate with machines on a daily basis, the self does not go unaffected. Let me introduce you to the algorithmic self:
substack.com/@draaronb/no...
Aaron Balick (@draaronb)
We tend to think of our egos as coming independently from deep inside ourselves, but psychologically, it’s always been formed in relationship to other people. Until now.
substack.com
January 21, 2026 at 2:37 PM
The sense of self is not intrinsic, it emerges through relationships woth others.
In an age where we relate with machines on a daily basis, the self does not go unaffected. Let me introduce you to the algorithmic self:
substack.com/@draaronb/no...
In an age where we relate with machines on a daily basis, the self does not go unaffected. Let me introduce you to the algorithmic self:
substack.com/@draaronb/no...
The sense of self is not intrinsic, it emerges through relationships woth others.
In an age where we relate with machines on a daily basis, the self does not go unaffected. Let me introduce you to the algorithmic self:
substack.com/@draaronb/no...
In an age where we relate with machines on a daily basis, the self does not go unaffected. Let me introduce you to the algorithmic self:
substack.com/@draaronb/no...
Aaron Balick (@draaronb)
We tend to think of our egos as coming independently from deep inside ourselves, but psychologically, it’s always been formed in relationship to other people. Until now.
substack.com
January 21, 2026 at 2:37 PM
The sense of self is not intrinsic, it emerges through relationships woth others.
In an age where we relate with machines on a daily basis, the self does not go unaffected. Let me introduce you to the algorithmic self:
substack.com/@draaronb/no...
In an age where we relate with machines on a daily basis, the self does not go unaffected. Let me introduce you to the algorithmic self:
substack.com/@draaronb/no...
The “Great Democrat Coverup”was allegedly keeping Biden indoors and away from the press so we wouldn’t see his decline.
The Republicans do the exact opposite, and just hope nobody notices.
The bar on Republicans, their officials and their expectations of them, appears to be much much lower.
The Republicans do the exact opposite, and just hope nobody notices.
The bar on Republicans, their officials and their expectations of them, appears to be much much lower.
January 20, 2026 at 9:25 PM
The “Great Democrat Coverup”was allegedly keeping Biden indoors and away from the press so we wouldn’t see his decline.
The Republicans do the exact opposite, and just hope nobody notices.
The bar on Republicans, their officials and their expectations of them, appears to be much much lower.
The Republicans do the exact opposite, and just hope nobody notices.
The bar on Republicans, their officials and their expectations of them, appears to be much much lower.