Over half a century ago I obtained a computer program called ELIZA. It was a piece of software, probably what today we’d call an algorithm, or even a ‘chatbot,’ that emulated a non-directive, Rogerian therapist. Developed by Joseph Weizenbaum at

A scene from Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis. Over 30 years ago I submitted, what I thought was an amusing piece, for the British Psychology Society’s in-house magazine, which invited witty articles for its back pages. The essence of my essay

Part of the Immix Quartet playing my composition Forse un Mattino. (Photo: Author supplied) My absence from these pages has been a produce of many forces. Paradoxically, pandemic-related lockdown has made access through the internet to colleagues around the world

Preparing to inject the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. (Photo: gencat cat/CC0/ Wikimedia Commons) Whole nations have stopped the roll-out of AstraZeneca vaccinations because of reports that a number of patients had blood-clots after being immunized. This is yet another nail

The unwounded help those injured after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. (Photo: Aaron “tango” Tang/CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons) With so many accounts of human nastiness to others, and violent crime the obsession of television documentaries and dramas, it is worth

An anti-vaccination protest from the last pandemic. This one, sponsored by the the Anti-Vaccination League of Canada, took place in Toronto in 1919. Fundamentalist Trump supporters and vaccine deniers are textbook examples of how ignorance can be the basis of

“The membership of this marauding group gives them a feeling of power and strengthens their identity.” (Photo: Tyler Merbler/ CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons) The outrageous attack on the U.S. Congress when in session has generated an understandable outcry in the

David Canter considers why the social sciences failed to influence behavior in order to stop the spread of COVID-19 The remarkably rapid development of a handful of vaccines that enhance the immune system’s ability to fight COVID-19 is an impressive

As a psychologist the most challenging aspect of the recent presidential election, for me, is understanding why 70 million U.S. citizens voted for Donald Trump. Many have pointed out that this is a man whose communications have the style and content

As a British academic schooled, from an early age, in the niceties of public debate, I’m struggling to understand the acceptability of a president behaving as Donald Trump did in his recently televised confrontation with former Vice President Joe Biden. I