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Cameron Allan McKean

Editor, Aeon+Psyche

Cameron is a writer, editor and underwater anthropologist in Melbourne, Australia. After a decade in Tokyo working as an arts journalist, he began doctoral studies at Deakin University involving fieldwork with scientists and divers at coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean. Cameron is a former books and culture editor for The Japan Times, and a past contributor to CNN, ArtAsiaPacific, Dwell, Apartamento, and art-agenda.

See Cameron Allan McKean’s profile on Aeon

Edited by Cameron Allan McKean

Two women painting together at a table. The one in the foreground is older, wears glasses and is focused on her brushstroke.

Brain injury and dementia

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Dementia is not a death. For some, it marks a new beginning

Advocates are reframing the syndrome as a different way of being – one in which potential for growth and connection endures

by Isabel Sutton

Shattered glass fragments scattered on a grey surface with a blurred background. Some pieces are mid-air, capturing the moment of a glass object crashing and breaking. The image portrays motion and impact.

Grief

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Grief is not a process with five stages. It is shattered glass

The five stages describe a grief that’s knowable and controlled. An accident in my kitchen helped me find a truer metaphor

by Joshua Thomas

A person walking on a fallen tree trunk in a dense, lush forest with tall trees and abundant greenery.

Transcendent experience

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Do you find the 21st century overstimulating? Try ‘longstorming’

As the treadmill of life speeds up, sublime outdoor spaces help us tap into timescales that are longer, slower, planetary

by Vincent Ialenti

Painting depicts a casino scene with people gathered around a green roulette table. The players are engaged, focused on the game. The roulette wheel is visible on the right side, and a green lamp hangs above. The scene is vibrant, with expressive brushstrokes and vivid colours.

Knowledge and reason

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What we gain by recognising the role of chance in life

Appreciating the world is random can foster perseverance, gratitude for our own luck and empathy for the plight of others

by Mark R Rank

Music

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I learned to hear the music of Earth’s underwater musicians

If we consider the sounds of whales and other organisms with an open mind, we find a strange beauty – and can even join in

by David Rothenberg

A stained-glass window depicts two figures: one with a bowed head and white face, and another with a halo, dressed in blue and holding a book.

Altered states

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William James was right about our strange inner experiences

Rather than Freud’s cynicism or Jung’s enthusiasm, we need an inquisitive approach to unusual forms of consciousness

by David Yaden

An elderly man holding a pipe sits in a study with books and papers on the desk and stained-glass windows in the background.

Psychoanalysis and the unconscious

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For Jung, architecture was a tool to represent the psyche

Carl Jung’s approach to architecture is a provocation: how are we creating spaces for the forgotten dimensions of our minds?

by David Borkenhagen

A muslim woman in a colourful orange sari reaches up to touch a decorative panel above a shrine

Mental health across cultures

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Why a Sufi approach to healing mental illness is so powerful

In Sufi shrines, rituals offer sufferers a path beyond the fear and isolation of their mental distress

by Bhrigupati Singh

Shelves filled with numerous vinyl records, aligned vertically and tightly packed together, showing varied colours of spines.

Music

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How to discover new music

In a musical rut? Whatever your age or existing tastes, you can find surprise and enjoyment beyond the streaming algorithms

by James Hadfield

Tree with colourful rags and trinkets tied to branches, overlooking a scenic lake and green landscape in the background.

Sacred places

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Paganism is a potent force in Ireland’s conservation movement

Long-held beliefs in an ‘Otherworld’ inhabited by wrathful fairies are now driving a resurgence in Irish eco-activism

by Juju Lane

A group of people in white attire and backpacks walk along a wooden path through green fields under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

Rituals and celebrations

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More radical and practical than Stoicism – discover Shugendō

As they train for their own deaths, Japan’s mountain priests develop a form of acceptance that goes beyond the Stoics

by Tim Bunting

Change and self-development

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Personal transformation can start with a whisper, not a bang

To understand personal transformation, we should listen to the incessant whispers in our stream of consciousness

by Jennifer Windt