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Life stages

Memory and nostalgia

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It’s not just youth’s happy memories that have a special weight

Mixed in with the highly memorable rites of growing up are more troubling highlights. But these, too, can have enduring value

by Çağlayan Özdemir, Michelle D Leichtman & David B Pillemer

four men in strange fancy dress costumes stand in a fairground at night

Life stages

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Legal definitions aside – what makes you think you’re an adult?

Achieving adult status is a momentous part of life. Our research suggests getting there takes more than years or milestones

by Megan Wright

Death and dying

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I thought I knew everything about death. Then grief struck me

Even though I grew up in Death World, and still live there, it couldn’t prepare me for being my family’s sole survivor

by John Troyer

Three people sitting on a colourful tiled bench; two are laughing, and one older person holds a cane and looks pensive, with greenery in the background.

Personality

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There’s a reason some of us find it easier to change than others

There is a personality trait we carry throughout life that explains why some of us find it easier to change than others

by Amanda J Wright

A skull adorned with colourful flowers, butterfly, and foliage, resting on a table with a candle, scroll, and bone.

Meaning and the good life

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The immortalists have got it wrong – here’s why we need death

The immortalists say beating death will lead to peace. But what if mortality is our bittersweet path to love and harmony?

by Susan Cain

A healthcare worker prepares a syringe in a treatment room, with patients in the background receiving medical care.

Caregiving

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We need to address society’s unrealistic view of caregivers

Measured against the figure of the strong carer, I felt I came up shamefully short – I was vulnerable, too

by Joanne Limburg

Older woman sitting on beach chair; older man lying on a towel with head on a ball; colourful umbrellas and buildings in the background.

Sex and sexuality

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Human bodies change through life. So does our sexuality

Sexual identity is more than sexual orientation. It develops and changes as our bodies develop and change through our lives

by Jana Byars

Two older men sitting on a red bench in a park overlooking the ocean, with trees and the sun shining through.

Ageing

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Older people are battling despair, but Erikson offers us hope

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a mental toll on older people. The psychoanalyst Erik Erikson offers a way out of our despair

by Jane Adams

A close-up of a vibrant green hummingbird in flight, with wings blurry and a blurred green background.

Nature and the environment

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A vast, thrilling world of nature unfolds outside of human time

Human life might stretch over decades, but the lifespans of many other organisms on this pale blue dot leave us in the dust

by Nicholas P Money

Two elderly women walking arm-in-arm on a city pavement, one with a cane, as a young man stands nearby.

Life stages

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Quit the millennial bashing – generationalism is bad science

‘Boomer’ and ‘Gen Z’ seem like handy ways of sorting people, but they are more cultural creations than natural phenomena

by Cort W Rudolph

A close-up of a hand completing a jigsaw puzzle showing a street scene with shops and a clock against a black background.

Pleasures and pastimes

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On the consolatory pleasure of jigsaws when the world is in bits

It’s not memory that makes us human but meaning-making. When life falls apart, jigsaw puzzles help us put some pieces back

by Melanie McGrath

A painting of a man with his arm round a seated woman in a wooded area.

Love

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Working, flirting and sex: courtship in 18th-century France

Flirting, sex and affection: working-class couples courting in 18th-century France show they are not so different from today

by Julie Hardwick