The ‘cuddly hormone’, oxytocin, seems to have a dark side, according to research suggesting that it only works on those who are within our own group. But does this say anything about our real lives?

Sometimes our scientific lens on the world is not just about empirical facts, but also about definitions. Consider the case of poor Pluto, kicked out of the planetary club in 2006.

It should trouble us all when anyone regards any of our most important philosophical, religious, or even scientific questions as “settled.”

As a young student with ADD, doing any writing was the furthest thing from my mind. But having taken that step so many years ago, I still receive an average of 8-10 letters or emails per week from persons in all walks of life and from places far and wide.

Most of the reasons for therapy’s success are simply unknown. This should keep therapists humble. The biggest factor which therapists can influence at all is the quality of the relationship. The relationship may be experienced as healing, even when therapy doesn’t measure up as “effective” at removing problems.

How do you deliver ‘placebo therapy’ to a client? By being deliberately hostile? Quantative scientific methods may not be the best ways to measure psychotherapy outcomes. But those who have the power and the money are increasingly using research results to legitimise a few techniques which are easy to measure, to the detriment of clients and therapists.

In a psychological experiment, jam-tasting experts and students more or less agreed on the best tasting jam — until the students were asked to analyse their preferences. Then they promptly forgot how they actually percieved the jam and started thinking too much.