Agnes Arnold-Forster

Writer and Historian, London, UK

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Agnes Arnold-Forster is a writer and historian. She is the author of The Cancer Problem (OUP, 2021) and Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion (Picador, 2024), and her writing has appeared in publications including The Washington Post, the TLS, and History Today. She lives in London, UK.

Written by Agnes Arnold-Forster

Painting of three children in a field of flowers with trees in the background under a cloudy sky.
HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY

In psychoanalysis, nostalgia was a sickness. It needn’t be

Nostalgia was, in Freud’s day, an illness steeped in the past. Today, it can be a joyful emotion that reframes the future

by Agnes Arnold-Forster

Photo of a surgeon in blue scrubs and mask walking in a hospital hallway near a surgical prep area.
WORK AND VOCATION

The idea of a ‘surgeon’s personality’ won’t fix the profession

What can explain why surgeons are leaving the profession in their droves? Clue: it’s not a failure of their personality

by Agnes Arnold-Forster