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Nick Haslam

Nick Haslam

The Conversation

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Why do we find certain things beautiful? A psychologist’s new book offers a bold answer

Nicholas Humphrey’s new book, Why Is the World So Beautiful?, posits a theory of beauty – but is beauty too manifold to surrender its mysteries to...

29.10.2026 20

The Conversation

Nick Haslam

The power of dreams – thanks to Freud

Neuroscience has challenged Freud’s ideas about dreams. Nevertheless, Freud was the one who made us realise dreams can be meaningful. Sigmund Freud...

13.07.2026 60

Pearls and Irritations

Nick Haslam

Guide to the classics: Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams gave us psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud’s 800-page book on dreams introduced a new way of thinking about the mind that reverberated through the 20th century.

23.06.2026 40

The Conversation

Nick Haslam

What is trauma? The more we talk about it, the more it means

Trauma is everywhere in mainstream vocabulary and online, but its meaning has never been hazier. Has the concept been de-stigmatised or diluted? And...

27.05.2026 50

The Conversation

Nick Haslam

What is consciousness? Michael Pollan spent 4 years looking for the answer

In A World Appears, Michael Pollan wonders if the search for consciousness might be a socially (and scientifically) acceptable proxy for the search...

27.03.2026 50

The Conversation

Nick Haslam

Friday essay: long in the shadow of Freud, Carl Jung’s ideas are finding fresh relevance today

An early figure in the psychoanalytic movement, Jung is often written off. But his ideas of the collective unconscious and emphasis on archetype and...

06.03.2026 100

The Conversation

Nick Haslam