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To Lead a Meaningful Life, Become Your Own Hero
What do Beowulf, Batman and Barbie all have in common? Ancient legends, comic book sagas and blockbuster movies alike share a storytelling blueprint called “the hero’s journey.” This timeless narrative structure, first described by mythologist Joseph Campbell in 1949, describes ancient
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What Is Narcissism? Science Confronts a Widely Misunderstood Phenomenon
Can you think of a narcissist? Some people might picture Donald Trump, perhaps, or Elon Musk, both of whom are often labeled as such on social media. Or maybe India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who
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Best Of: The Myers-Briggs Test, the Grieving Brain, Common Myths, More
Podcast: Excerpts from our first 100 episodes: a skeptical look at the Myers-Briggs test, what happens in the grieving brain, common myths of psychological science, and more.
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The Curious Personality Changes of Older Age
You’ve probably heard the saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” An awful phrase, I know, but it speaks to a common belief about older adulthood: that it’s a time of stagnation. A time
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A Personality Test Can’t Tell You Who You Are
Juanita Hernandez is a 25-year-old Miami-based anxiously attached Aries (Scorpio moon, Taurus rising), ENFJ, Enneagram Type Two. Until recently, she considered quality time her love language, but after listening to an episode of the podcast If Books
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What Your Favorite Personality Test Says About You
In ancient Greece, the physician Hippocrates is said to have theorized that the ratio of four bodily fluids—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—dictated a person’s distinct temperament. The psychologist Carl Jung, in his 1921 book, Psychological Types
