Areo - Psychology

20 min

Psychology

What if I’m Wrong: Should Doubt Be a Sacred Value?

In my previous essay for Areo magazine, I claim that curiosity is sacred and that we should elevate curiosity into what Jonathan Haidt calls a “sacred value,” by honoring Richard…

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4 min

Psychology

The Sex Recession

The number of Americans not having sex has reached a record high. Similar declines in sexual activity have been documented in Britain and Japan. Young men are driving this recession—whether willingly…

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5 min

Psychology

Dogma Is Not Confined to the Cathedral

My fellow nonbelievers, Whether you call yourself an atheist, an agnostic—or even spiritual but not religious—there’s a decent chance that you weren’t raised to accept such a position. Many of…

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4 min

Psychology

Semantics and the Need for Good Explanations

Semantics have long played a role in the culture wars. As we grapple with the implications of concentration camps, identity politics and postmodernism, we are in desperate need of a…

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5 min

Psychology

Journalism’s Armchair Psychology

While I’m not sure whether the AP specifically prohibits it, I would like to petition all journalists not to psychologize subjects when they have no evidence for their claims. If…

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16 min

Postmodernism and Psychoanalysis

Jordan B. Peterson is a self-professed proponent of classical liberalism, a Jungian and a clinical psychologist. However, as I will argue here, classical liberalism and psychoanalysis are fundamentally at odds.…

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7 min

Gaming Disorder: The World Health Organisation Jumps the Shark

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced plans to include gaming disorder—video gaming that interferes with other life responsibilities—in their International Classification of Diseases (ICD)—despite considerable controversy, including…

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8 min

The Grain of Truth Behind Calls to Restrict Debate

Statements about the oppressive nature of academic debate or the need to balance free speech with a consideration of people’s feelings are often seen as outrageous enough to be instantly…

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7 min

The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Post-Truth Politics and the “Great Replacement”

On 15 March, Australian Brenton Tarrant entered a New Zealand mosque and brutally massacred dozens of people. Posted online before the attack, Tarrant’s manifesto is an attempt to justify this…

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8 min

The Philosophy of Slavoj Zizek

My recent article on Slavoj Zizek deliberately eschewed more extensive engagement with the philosophical underpinnings of his work. Given that his recent debate with Jordan Peterson—which I analyze here—concerned politics…

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7 min

Psychology

Are We Too Irrational for Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance?

The veil of ignorance, proposed in John Rawls’ 1971 book, A Theory of Justice, is a key concept in the liberal pursuit of a just society. Rawls suggests that, when…

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4 min

Virtual Reality Will Spark a Twenty-First Century Decadent Movement

On 20 February, 2019, Jak Wilmot put on a VR headset and didn’t take it off for an entire week. He ate, slept, worked and played in VR, and even…

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19 min

Psychology

Why We Join Cults

At the start of April, we were shocked to discover the details of the NXIVM cult—an organisation which “brainwashed and blackmailed women into being sex slaves.” The female members of…

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7 min

The Personal and the Political: Reconciling Right and Left Perspectives

I’d like to propose two theses which, together, identify the basic failings of the Left and Right in today’s political landscape: the Left proposes political solutions to what are essentially…

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8 min

No, Secular Humanism is Not a Religion

I was recently surprised to read in Quillette an essay which argues that secular humanism is a religion. Although a number of thoughtful arguments for and against the similarity of secular…

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19 min

Attention Requires Intention

Two and a half years ago, I made the social media purge. The decision took some time to build up to, and the act itself was difficult. I spent two…

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12 min

Psychology

Die Loser: Why We Are Killing Ourselves More, and What’s the Cure?

We are killing ourselves more than we used to. According to both the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the UK Department of Health, suicides rates have doubled…

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Psychology

Memory and Identity: A Letter Exchange with Gurwinder Bhogal

What if I’m Wrong: Should Doubt Be a Sacred Value?

Dogma Is Not Confined to the Cathedral

Semantics and the Need for Good Explanations

Journalism’s Armchair Psychology

Postmodernism and Psychoanalysis

Gaming Disorder: The World Health Organisation Jumps the Shark

The Grain of Truth Behind Calls to Restrict Debate

The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Post-Truth Politics and the “Great Replacement”

The Philosophy of Slavoj Zizek

Are We Too Irrational for Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance?

Virtual Reality Will Spark a Twenty-First Century Decadent Movement

Why We Join Cults

The Personal and the Political: Reconciling Right and Left Perspectives

No, Secular Humanism is Not a Religion

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