History of emotions
![Man in jeans and trainers falls backwards as he avoids three charging bulls on a cobblestone street. Top-down perspective captures the chaos of the scene.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/309c2a84-8539-45d2-acac-b6857dbc4bf7/rt-panos_00351720.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
History of emotions
idea
Schadenfreude: why do we find joy in the pain felt by others?
A brief history of schadenfreude – taking pleasure in the misfortune of another – from ancient China to Charlie Chaplin
by David P Barash
![A painting depicts three children dressed in old-fashioned clothing walking through a field of wildflowers at dusk. Two older children, one wearing a large brimmed hat, lead a younger child by the hand. The background shows a line of trees against a cloudy sky with a hint of sunset.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/204d319e-f914-4673-8d65-514ff7da6a22/rt-wichita-art-musuem-homer-in-the-mowing-m127_54.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
History of psychology and psychiatry
idea
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
![The bone outline of a skull is seen in relief where excavated on a cave floor](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/9ed85d80-8a3d-44e1-a3db-128c02bb1398/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Rituals and celebrations
idea
Digging for answers in a cave filled with Neanderthal skeletons
When a team of researchers returned to an Iraqi cave believed to be a Neanderthal burial site, here’s what they found
by Shayla Love
![Wooden sign of a cow with a “SEAFOOD” sign below, set against a background of a red barn, gravel and a tree.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/e007bfbc-73ed-4da3-9807-0fa44fc6649a/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Learning and education
idea
Perplexed? Embrace it! Confusion is a symptom of learning
Perplexed? Embrace it! Confusion is a sign of learning, but the key is finding the sweet spot of productive confusion
by Juliette Vazard
![Painting of a young woman in a pale pink dress at a table by a window, reading a book, with potted plants in the background and a bowl on the table.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/07686015-42a0-40c7-afd3-7f0d9d5230b9/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
History of emotions
idea
The fear that trashy media will rot your brain goes way back
Keeping up with the Faerie Queene: from early modern romances to reality TV, does bingeing ‘lowbrow’ culture rot the brain?
by James Waddell
![People enjoying a day at the beach. A man carries a child on his shoulders holding a ball, while a woman with outstretched arms is in the foreground.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/dba56a0e-d9ff-4345-a0ba-d24a0e3489b6/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
History of emotions
idea
The journeys taken by emotion words shape our inner lives
Changes to the meanings of euphoria, enthusiasm and ecstasy over time chart the ever-shifting territory of the emotions
by Tim Lomas