Can’t you see? It’s incredibly interesting. Aren’t you struck by how much action occurred simply because something went wrong with one man’s brain? It’s as if the rational world, your world, was a sti...
The American physician Samuel Cartwright identifying in 1851 a mental disorder, drapetomania, evident only in slaves. The sole symptom was the desire to run away from slavery and the cure was to whip...
After his lawyer argued that given the passage of time, he wouldn’t have a fair hearing. He became a pariah in the offender-profiling world. Now,
When shamings are delivered like remotely administered drone strikes, nobody needs to think about how ferocious our collective power might be. The snowflake never needs to feel responsible for the ava...
There's a societal push for conformity in all ways. There's less tolerance of difference. And so maybe for some people having a label is better. It can confer a sense of hope and direction. (interview...
She chuckled to herself, pressed send, and wandered around the airport for half an hour, sporadically checking Twitter. I got nothing, she told me. No replies. I imagined her feeling a bit deflated ab...
Is Obama satanic? he asked me. I was grateful for the conversation starter — I consider anything that staves off social awkwardness to be a blessing — but I couldn’t lie.
I think our natural disposition as humans is to plod along until we get old and stop. But with social media, we've created a stage for constant artificial high drama.
I suppose that when shamings are delivered like remotely administered drone strikes nobody needs to think about how ferocious our collective power might be.
He hosted a series of lunches—les déjeuners du mercredi—for politicians and prominent society people. He’d sit at the head of the table with a bell by his side. If one of his guests said something he...
What we believe is constantly reinforced by people who believe the same thing.
Brilliant and audacious as ever — a beat poet of paranoia. He
That’s the psychopath: somebody who doesn’t understand what’s going on emotionally, but understands that something important has happened. But
Psychologists try and remind anxiety sufferers that ‘what if’ worries are irrational ones. If you find yourself thinking, ‘What if I just came across as racist?’ the ‘what if’ is evidence that nothing...
People who are normal (i.e., sane, sensible) don’t try to open lines of communication with total strangers by writing them a series of disjointed, weird, cryptic messages.
One of my dad’s colleagues said, She wants to paint with her shit. Maybe we should give her paints. And it worked.’ Mary Barnes eventually became a celebrated and much-exhibited artist. Her paintings...
Oh, Ronson’s all right, Alex told him. I’m sure he’s planning some form of sophisticated hit piece, but I don’t care. It’s always artfully done so it goes back and forth, you know. Why is he wearing a...
Let me ask you three questions, he said. And then you’ll see it my way. Question One: What’s the worst thing that you have ever done to someone? It’s okay. You don’t have to confess it out loud. Quest...
It wasn’t easy to learn about Gustave LeBon. For being the father of such an enduring theory, almost nothing has been written about him. Only one man has ever tried to piece his life story together—Bo...
It was a heartbreaking story. He closed his eyes tightly as he told it, so I took the opportunity to quickly check Twitter. I hate not knowing what’s happening on Twitter.