Handful of Kindness

Take reality into account A century ago, the child had no recognized status. In many ways, apprentices of the age of eighty led an adult life. After all, the only way to make a statement was to join the circle of adults, and as early as possible. Now it is almost the opposite: young people are considered a privileged social group. The status of an adult is either depreciating or becoming unattainable. The road of adult life passes through the acceptance (far from our wishes) of reality and leads to a horizon beyond which death...

It seems that nowadays nobody knows what an adult is and when a person becomes one. There are many of us who would like to live a life without taking it seriously. How and when did I become an adult? I have no idea! Although I don't consider myself a child or an infantile, the philosopher Andre Comte-Sponville writes. But this transition took place very gradually and imperceptibly. It was not an event, but a process, a work, a long recovery. I never felt that childhood was a happy time. Becoming an adult meant finally choosing happiness as opposed to childhood...

Truth about the beard In almost all cultures, the hair on the face is a symbol of wisdom. Since childhood, we have been taught that a man with a beard is worthy of respect and praise. But is it true? Professor Jürgen Klaproth conducted research at the University of Nuremberg-Erlangen. He suggested that teachers wear beards for one semester and shave them at the beginning of the next. The results of the survey showed that the students were clearly against the beard, claiming that the teachers looked much less friendly and authoritative, and even less intelligent...

Magicians, hypnotists and fortune-tellers aren't the only people trying to read our minds. Scientists are also keen to play "mind games", and over the years they have found increasingly strange ways to do so. We have collected the most ridiculous, frightening and fascinating experiments of psychologists. Social laziness In 1883, the French agronomist Max Ringelman experimented with students at an agricultural college, which proved that working in groups actually makes us lazier. In the course of...

The mysterious, powerful, disturbing - our unconscious cannot but arouse curiosity. Does it really exist? Why does it serve us? And can we make contact with it? Let's try to deal with myths and answer some questions. The idea that each of us has the unconscious is hardly surprising today. We are used to noting "Freudian reservations" or, having forgotten the keys to the house twice in a row, we are looking for a hidden meaning in this. And when each time we fail in love, we deeply notice that he probably unconsciously does not want to bind himself to obligations...

Is the unconsious inborn or received? It may seem that the unconscious is formed in parallel with the development of the human personality, as the most disturbing and frightening experiences are displaced. This is only partially true. Psychoanalysts specify: it appears at the moment when the child mastery of speech. Freud believed that the unconscious includes not only what is being displaced (forgotten), but also what is initially not allowed into consciousness (i.e. our forbidden fantasies and desires)...

In Freud's words, the unconscious is a hidden "other scene" on which our lives are played out. It displaces our memories, desires, emotions and feelings that cause us to fear or shame. Without knowing it, we may experience an unclear sense of guilt that makes us punish ourselves for illness, failure in love affairs or career. The unconscious puts us in front of a disturbing fact: emotions, fantasies, thoughts that we do not know about or do not pay attention to, can determine our lives more than our will...