Psyche Magazine
@psyche.co
A magazine to help you understand yourself and live well.
Faced with existential dread, this Note to Self suggests that we should turn to poetry, and, much like philosophers before us, find a balm in the enduring words of William Wordsworth – who struggled with such questions himself once
For navigating an existential crisis, try reading Wordsworth | Psyche Notes to Self
For many generations of readers, the poetry of William Wordsworth has been an irreplaceable balm for the soul
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February 12, 2026 at 1:30 PM
Faced with existential dread, this Note to Self suggests that we should turn to poetry, and, much like philosophers before us, find a balm in the enduring words of William Wordsworth – who struggled with such questions himself once
This refreshing Idea by the mathematician Adam Kucharski argues belief ‘beyond the limits of reason’ is at the heart of science. From early scientists’ firmly held religious beliefs to mathematical proofs, faith and reason are not opposites, but deeply intertwined
Why the search for proof can’t be separated from faith | Psyche Ideas
Rather than being an enemy of empiricism, belief in what can’t be known is part of how we gain knowledge, even now
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February 12, 2026 at 11:30 AM
This refreshing Idea by the mathematician Adam Kucharski argues belief ‘beyond the limits of reason’ is at the heart of science. From early scientists’ firmly held religious beliefs to mathematical proofs, faith and reason are not opposites, but deeply intertwined
Is it harder to love someone who is ill or to be the ill person? This piece by nonfiction writer Lisa Simone Kingstone explores how her cancer diagnosis made her understand the biblical story of Job, the man who loses everything but rages at the ‘miserable comforters’ trying to help
I had cancer. Did I need all the miserable comforters too? | Psyche Turning Points
Sick in a London hospital, I understood the Book of Job and his rage at all the miserable comforters
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February 11, 2026 at 11:30 AM
Is it harder to love someone who is ill or to be the ill person? This piece by nonfiction writer Lisa Simone Kingstone explores how her cancer diagnosis made her understand the biblical story of Job, the man who loses everything but rages at the ‘miserable comforters’ trying to help
In this moving animation, the filmmaker João Gonzalez visualises the inner turmoil caused by living with OCD. As the main character tries soothing his internal unease through daily rituals, a storm brews outside his rickety houseboat
Adrift at sea, Nestor struggles to control the chaos within | Psyche Videos
Inspired by his own experiences, an animator evokes the stormy tides of order and obsession in a striking portrayal of OCD
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February 10, 2026 at 1:30 PM
In this moving animation, the filmmaker João Gonzalez visualises the inner turmoil caused by living with OCD. As the main character tries soothing his internal unease through daily rituals, a storm brews outside his rickety houseboat
To find yourself in between things can feel terrifying, as though we might fall into a void. But according to the Nahuatl concept of ‘nepantla’ – expanded upon by a rich tradition of Mexican philosophers – being in-between needn’t be frightening, but fundamentally freeing @carlosasanchez.bsky.social
Why we should embrace ‘nepantla’ – the in-betweenness of life | Psyche Ideas
In an age of strong political commitments, a Nahuatl word encapsulates the freedom to let go of what has become oppressive
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February 10, 2026 at 11:15 AM
To find yourself in between things can feel terrifying, as though we might fall into a void. But according to the Nahuatl concept of ‘nepantla’ – expanded upon by a rich tradition of Mexican philosophers – being in-between needn’t be frightening, but fundamentally freeing @carlosasanchez.bsky.social
Is your child anxious and reluctant to leave for school in the morning? For Children’s Mental Health Week, we are sharing this compassionate and insightful Guide from the Psyche archive which offers tools to help you make sense of your child’s experience #childrensmentalhealthweek
How to help your child go to school when they feel they can’t | Psyche Guides
Is your child anxious and reluctant to leave home in the morning? Here’s a compassionate plan to help them get back to school
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February 9, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Is your child anxious and reluctant to leave for school in the morning? For Children’s Mental Health Week, we are sharing this compassionate and insightful Guide from the Psyche archive which offers tools to help you make sense of your child’s experience #childrensmentalhealthweek
What if heartbreak isn’t only an ending, but an opening? One woman traces how a queer breakup forced her to confront the fears and shame that had confined her mind and how letting go became an act of freedom
My queer breakup helped me leave the cage that held my mind | Psyche Turning Points
In a heterosexual breakup, the script is clean: loss, anger, distance. Ours refused that narrative
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February 9, 2026 at 1:00 PM
What if heartbreak isn’t only an ending, but an opening? One woman traces how a queer breakup forced her to confront the fears and shame that had confined her mind and how letting go became an act of freedom
Psyche audio helps you better understand yourself and others through expert guides, provocative ideas and personal life stories.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts: buff.ly/7VZPFcX
And Spotify: buff.ly/FtlgaV7
Listen now on Apple Podcasts: buff.ly/7VZPFcX
And Spotify: buff.ly/FtlgaV7
February 9, 2026 at 11:01 AM
Psyche audio helps you better understand yourself and others through expert guides, provocative ideas and personal life stories.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts: buff.ly/7VZPFcX
And Spotify: buff.ly/FtlgaV7
Listen now on Apple Podcasts: buff.ly/7VZPFcX
And Spotify: buff.ly/FtlgaV7
In this delightful animation, the US photographer and filmmaker Josephine Sittenfeld digs into a curiosity many of us can likely relate to: who is her therapist Linda outside of her treatment room? Here are the small hints at Linda’s private life that she’s collected
The questions we can’t ask our therapists, but are dying to | Psyche Videos
We trust our therapists with our deepest thoughts, yet we know almost nothing about them – Josephine needs to know more
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February 6, 2026 at 3:30 PM
In this delightful animation, the US photographer and filmmaker Josephine Sittenfeld digs into a curiosity many of us can likely relate to: who is her therapist Linda outside of her treatment room? Here are the small hints at Linda’s private life that she’s collected
To study the nature of transcendent spiritual experiences, the psychology researcher Mohammadamin Saraei radically re-designed his research to move away from the lab and out into the world. His findings widen our lens on spirituality from the brain to a whole community
Spirituality can’t be reduced to what’s happening in the brain | Psyche Ideas
Seeing the ‘mind’ as extending beyond the head can help us better understand the nature of transcendent experiences
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February 6, 2026 at 1:15 PM
To study the nature of transcendent spiritual experiences, the psychology researcher Mohammadamin Saraei radically re-designed his research to move away from the lab and out into the world. His findings widen our lens on spirituality from the brain to a whole community
The personal essay can sometimes get a bad rap – too confessional, too self-involved. But Psyche’s Life Stories editor Alizeh Kohari is here to change your mind: personal essays capture something essential about our shared humanity, finding the universal in the personal psyche.co/life-stories
February 6, 2026 at 11:16 AM
The personal essay can sometimes get a bad rap – too confessional, too self-involved. But Psyche’s Life Stories editor Alizeh Kohari is here to change your mind: personal essays capture something essential about our shared humanity, finding the universal in the personal psyche.co/life-stories
Having cruised through her teenage years with remarkably clear skin, the writer Krystal Sital viewed makeup as frivolous and vain. So it came as a surprise to everyone – and most of all herself – when she found herself turning to the beauty aisle for comfort after her lupus diagnosis
Makeup seemed frivolous; now I have lupus, it’s liberating | Psyche Turning Points
I’d dealt with many illnesses. But when lupus left scars on my face, my suffering was suddenly visible
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February 5, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Having cruised through her teenage years with remarkably clear skin, the writer Krystal Sital viewed makeup as frivolous and vain. So it came as a surprise to everyone – and most of all herself – when she found herself turning to the beauty aisle for comfort after her lupus diagnosis
Snorkelling at the most unassuming of beaches can teach us about slowing down and noticing the small spectacles unfolding everywhere
The creatures of the bay are teaching me how to pay attention | Psyche Notes to Self
Snorkelling at an unassuming beach sharpened my attention to detail, revealing the tiny spectacles unfolding beneath me
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February 4, 2026 at 1:30 PM
Snorkelling at the most unassuming of beaches can teach us about slowing down and noticing the small spectacles unfolding everywhere
This Guide by psychologist Julie K Norem identifies some of the most common planning pitfalls, and suggests that the strategy of ‘defensive pessimism’ can help you plan more realistically and effectively
Want things to go well? Plan like a defensive pessimist | Psyche Guides
So often we underestimate the time and effort required to reach our goals. You can avoid that trap with realistic planning
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February 4, 2026 at 11:15 AM
This Guide by psychologist Julie K Norem identifies some of the most common planning pitfalls, and suggests that the strategy of ‘defensive pessimism’ can help you plan more realistically and effectively
In this tenderly shot portrait of the acclaimed Latin American ballet dancer Elisa Carrillo Cabrera, the Berlin-based film maker Veronika Pokoptceva captures what goes into the seemingly effortless perfection of a ballet performance
The relentless work behind the poise of a world-class dancer | Psyche Videos
Behind a ballerina’s beautiful performance lie hours of discipline, tenderness and an abiding attention to detail
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February 3, 2026 at 1:30 PM
In this tenderly shot portrait of the acclaimed Latin American ballet dancer Elisa Carrillo Cabrera, the Berlin-based film maker Veronika Pokoptceva captures what goes into the seemingly effortless perfection of a ballet performance
One evening, Kathleen Donohoe looked into her grandfather’s blue eyes, the two of them joined by her dog Mindy in her bedroom. This seemingly unremarkable scene is so indelibly etched into her memory because of one detail: her grandfather had been dead for over ten
I saw a ghost at 25. Now 52, I imagine myself as a ghost | Psyche Turning Points
At 25, I saw my grandfather’s ghost. At 52, I think of what it may mean to be a ghost
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February 3, 2026 at 11:15 AM
One evening, Kathleen Donohoe looked into her grandfather’s blue eyes, the two of them joined by her dog Mindy in her bedroom. This seemingly unremarkable scene is so indelibly etched into her memory because of one detail: her grandfather had been dead for over ten
Reposted by Psyche Magazine
‘We are all always coming and going’ psyche.co/portraits/st... Steve Schwartzberg’s journey from Harvard psychologist to erotic healer, Buddhist and teacher was always haunted by death. Then he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. New long-form psychological profile @psyche.co
Steve Schwartzberg: from Harvard psychologist to erotic healer | Psyche Portraits
Steve Schwartzberg’s journey from Harvard psychologist to erotic healer, Buddhist and teacher was always haunted by death. Then he was diagnosed with terminal cancer
psyche.co
January 29, 2026 at 4:20 PM
‘We are all always coming and going’ psyche.co/portraits/st... Steve Schwartzberg’s journey from Harvard psychologist to erotic healer, Buddhist and teacher was always haunted by death. Then he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. New long-form psychological profile @psyche.co
We’re often told that speaking up is the path to healing. In this Idea, a philosopher of psychiatry asks us to pause and reconsider that assumption. He explores when talking helps, when it harms, and why making space for quiet can be an act of care in itself
For some with mental illness, it’s not always good to talk | Psyche Ideas
Well-meaning campaigns urge openness and conversation about mental health struggles. But there are those who cherish silence
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February 2, 2026 at 11:30 AM
We’re often told that speaking up is the path to healing. In this Idea, a philosopher of psychiatry asks us to pause and reconsider that assumption. He explores when talking helps, when it harms, and why making space for quiet can be an act of care in itself
Attachment theory is often oversimplified by focusing only on our parents. But in this Note to Self, Psyche editor Matt Huston contemplates research that found even our friendships with our peers shape how we relate to others as we grow up
Parents aren’t the only ones behind our attachment styles | Psyche Notes to Self
Do attachment styles come from how our parents treated us? New research on attachment suggests there’s more to the story
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January 30, 2026 at 11:30 AM
Attachment theory is often oversimplified by focusing only on our parents. But in this Note to Self, Psyche editor Matt Huston contemplates research that found even our friendships with our peers shape how we relate to others as we grow up
At age 13, Andrea Dorfman first tried shaving her legs together with a friend – the operative word there being ‘tried’. In this charmingly animated, award-winning short film, Dorfman documents her changing relationship with her leg hair and how it has fundamentally shaped her self image
What’s a girl to do about leg hair? A playful exploration | Psyche Videos
‘All I ever wanted was to feel free’: a young woman puzzles over the peculiar social power of keeping her leg hair
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January 30, 2026 at 11:15 AM
At age 13, Andrea Dorfman first tried shaving her legs together with a friend – the operative word there being ‘tried’. In this charmingly animated, award-winning short film, Dorfman documents her changing relationship with her leg hair and how it has fundamentally shaped her self image
We often try escaping the stress-inducing business of the city by going into nature. But what if that’s not an option? In this Psyche Idea, Zsanett Ritli suggests that nature isn’t the only place to find stillness: it can be constructed by humans, through art and architecture
In the bustle of the city, we need more pockets of serenity | Psyche Ideas
Stillness shouldn’t be something you only find in nature. Well-designed urban spaces can be good for the nervous system, too
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January 29, 2026 at 1:30 PM
We often try escaping the stress-inducing business of the city by going into nature. But what if that’s not an option? In this Psyche Idea, Zsanett Ritli suggests that nature isn’t the only place to find stillness: it can be constructed by humans, through art and architecture
What makes a life meaningful? Launching today, our new monthly Psyche Portraits explore this question through longform profiles. Our first Portrait is of Steve Schwartzberg, a Harvard psychologist-turned-sexual healer, whom the writer Andrew Lawler spoke with through his final months
Steve Schwartzberg: from Harvard psychologist to erotic healer | Psyche Portraits
Steve Schwartzberg’s journey from Harvard psychologist to erotic healer, Buddhist and teacher was always haunted by death. Then he was diagnosed with terminal cancer
buff.ly
January 29, 2026 at 11:15 AM
What makes a life meaningful? Launching today, our new monthly Psyche Portraits explore this question through longform profiles. Our first Portrait is of Steve Schwartzberg, a Harvard psychologist-turned-sexual healer, whom the writer Andrew Lawler spoke with through his final months
Tapping into his audience’s innate musicality, the musician Bobby McFerrin conducts an impromptu choir using an unconventional method: hopping around on stage. Discover the power of the pentatonic scale in this amusing video, taken at the World Science Festival
How Bobby McFerrin draws out mesmerising music from any audience | Psyche Videos
An off-the-cuff choral collaboration between Bobby McFerrin and his audience gestures to the universal language of music
psyche.co
January 28, 2026 at 2:58 AM
Tapping into his audience’s innate musicality, the musician Bobby McFerrin conducts an impromptu choir using an unconventional method: hopping around on stage. Discover the power of the pentatonic scale in this amusing video, taken at the World Science Festival
For children of immigrant families, the challenges can be numerous and overwhelming, and often their identity becomes tied to their self-sufficiency and achievements. How can someone break free from the pattern of conflating excelling with self-worth and ‘fitting in’ with success?
How cultural outsiders cope with the pain of feeling different | Psyche Ideas
In therapy with people from immigrant families, I’ve seen the side effects of adaptation – and what it takes to break free
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January 27, 2026 at 1:45 PM
For children of immigrant families, the challenges can be numerous and overwhelming, and often their identity becomes tied to their self-sufficiency and achievements. How can someone break free from the pattern of conflating excelling with self-worth and ‘fitting in’ with success?
In a world characterised by uncertainty, speed and ceaseless attempts to hijack our attention, The Icelandic concept of InnSæi can help us stay consciously and courageously anchored to our inner compass while adjusting to new realities. This Guide will show you how
How to find your InnSæi and reconnect with your intuition | Psyche Guides
In uncertain times, an Icelandic concept can help you reconnect with your intuition and follow your inner compass
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January 26, 2026 at 1:02 PM
In a world characterised by uncertainty, speed and ceaseless attempts to hijack our attention, The Icelandic concept of InnSæi can help us stay consciously and courageously anchored to our inner compass while adjusting to new realities. This Guide will show you how