David Theo Goldberg, director of the University of California’s Humanities Research Institute, on hidden assumptions about race in the policing and judgment of crime.
Category: Current affairs
Healing and Haunting at Kingston’s Prison for Women
In this second essay of a two-part series, philosopher Lisa Guenther explores what a meaningful memorial might be for the Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario – a former site of prisoner abuse and psychiatric experimentation on vulnerable women.
Memory and Forgetting at Kingston’s Prison for Women
In the first of a two-part series, philosopher Lisa Guenther introduces the Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario. As the former home of hundreds of incarcerated Canadian women, it was a site of unethical human experiments and other forms of prisoner abuse.
‘Free Associations? Psychoanalytic History, Democracy and the State We Are In’
What is ‘the state we are in’? In this wide-ranging lecture, Daniel Pick reflects upon the history of psychoanalysis, politics and democracy.
Psychic Driving at the Museum of the Normal: ‘Stop Thinking about Death… and Stop Shouting at People’
‘Psychic driving’ is a Cold War-era technology for reprogramming the mind that has a sordid history. David Saunders reports on its continuing appeal.
Orwell and Post-truth Politics
Danae Karydaki explains why, in our age of ‘post-truth politics’, George Orwell’s essays are now more relevant than ever.
Prof. Tim Shallice on ‘interrogation in depth’ and sensory deprivation
We interviewed cognitive neuropsychologist Tim Shallice about the ‘Five Techniques’ of enhanced interrogation used by British agents in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, and their association with scientific research on sensory deprivation.
Critical Incidents: Laura Stark on APA Ethics Policy
A still from the film Obedience (1962), a production by the psychologist Stanley Milgram made in the course of his ‘Obedience to Authority’ experiments at Yale University. It is now widely believed that these experiments could not be recreated today due to ethical guidelines established by psychologists in 1973. By Laura Stark ‘I… Read more »
What we’re reading now: The APA report
The American Psychological Association’s Independent Review on ethics, national security and torture—in historical context By Marcie Holmes The Hidden Persuaders project studies the history of ‘brainwashing’ and other forms of mind control as they relate to the expertise and status of the psy professions during the Cold War. Our inquiries here chart important chapters… Read more »
