Meet Madam Jeanne Louise Calment, who had the longest confirmed human lifespan: 122 years, 164 days. Apparently, fate strongly approved of the way she lived her life. She was born in Arles, France, on February 21, 1875. The Eiffel Tower was built when she was 14 years old. It was at this time she met… Read More Madam Jeanne Louise Calment (1875-1997)
As the old saying goes, two Jews, three opinions. Add one headache for the Taliban. Meet Zabulon Simentov, 66, who is believed to be the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan. Emran Feroz recently profiled Simentov for Foreign Policy and uncovered some incredible stories about the feisty Afghan — including that the Taliban once imprisoned him… Read More LAURA ADKINS: The last Jews in Afghanistan argued so much the Taliban kicked them out of prison and stole their Torah
The International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies special issue on the COVID-19 pandemic comprises articles from across the globe, encompassing psychoanalytic perspectives from Europe, Asia and North and South America. Click here to read the issue for free. The issue features Ira Brenner’s new paper: ‘Disinformation, disease, and Donald Trump’. Issue Information Pages: 107-108 – First Published: 22 June 2021 Abstract … Read More The International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. Special issue on the COVID-19 pandemic
The Middle Ages,” wrote Carl Jung in a 1958 book about ufos, “have not died out… Mythology and magic flourish as ever in our midst.” I doubt if Monica Black, a professor of history at the University of Tennessee and the author of A Demon-Haunted Land,a n intriguing, subtle, and occasionally startling examination of a wave of superstitious… Read More Book review: The sound of silence
The thesis of Macbeth is also the Socratic thesis, set forth especially in the Republic and the Gorgias, that the worst fate that can befall a human soul, far worse than becoming the victim of a tyrant, is to become a tyrant Macbeth is a moral play par excellence. In this, it stands in stark contrast to two more recent… Read More Harry V. Jaffa: Macbeth and the Moral Universe
An excerpt from Kabir, Kabir: The Life and Work of the Early Modern Poet-Philosopher – by Purushottam Agrawal. Why were Kabir’s detractors “forced” to escalate matters up to the sultan? Mostly because they were smarting from having failed so miserably to check his influence themselves. Kabir’s fame was sky- rocketing, despite his obvious lack… Read More Kabir’s search for solitude resembles our search for privacy in totalitarian times
“What progress we are making! In the middle ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.” Late in May 1938, an 82-year old Sigmund Freud and his family were in Vienna eagerly awaiting the final details to be sorted before they could leave their country for good. There was no… Read More “I can most highly recommend the Gestapo to everyone” – Sigmund Freud, 1938
One of Adolf Hitler’s most cherished dreams was to build the largest monument ever created. With the guidance of “the chief architect of the Reich” Albert Speer, he planned to remake Berlin around what he saw as the future core of the Germanic empire: the People’s Hall (Volkshalle), a dome that was to be 290… Read More Gastón Gordillo: Nazi Architecture As Affective Weapon
A few days into lockdown, a Facebook notification suggested I join the local Mutual Aid, a community group that helps and provides companionship to the most vulnerable. I thought, fantastic, a focus, and clicked through to the WhatsApp group, desperate for distraction. But the group seemed inactive; there were very few messages. Days and weeks passed… Read More Daniella Isaacs: What my lockdown calls to an old man taught me about laughter, life – and myself
In 1980, hysteria died. That was the year it was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) handbook and ceased to be considered a medical condition. But we need only look around us to see that hysteria has never been more alive – just consider the run on toilet paper at the beginning of the… Read More Marc Schuilenburg: Welcome to the age of hysteria
After the truth-shower 