If Virginia Satir, the warm and endlessly optimistic mother of experiential family therapy, had ever set foot on Mount Athos, she probably would have been delighted to meet St. Paisios, one of modern Orthodoxy’s most beloved monks.

Not because he was a trained therapist—he wasn’t—but because his entire life was one long experiment in healing human hearts.

Satir believed that every family was a living, breathing system where emotional wounds got passed around like a contagious illness (Satir, 1983).

St. Paisios saw the same thing, except to him, family wounds were spiritual infections—and like all infections, they either worsened or healed (Agioritikovima, 2012).

Both of them, in their own ways, spent their lives telling people the same message:

"You’re not broken. You’re just stuck in a bad pattern. And good news—patterns can change."

If you’ve been doomscrolling through the internet lately, you might have stumbled upon the claim that manipulative, self-absorbed, and delightfully callous folks—otherwise known as members of the "Dark Triad"—are irresistible to potential mates.

You may have even been led to believe that narcissists, Machiavellians, and psychopaths are cleaning up in the dating scene, leaving the rest of us hapless romantics in the dust.

But alas, a new study published in the Journal of Personality suggests that this notion is about as accurate as a horoscope predicting your ex will text you back.

Researchers Yavor Dragostinov and Tom Booth took a long, hard look at whether Dark Triad traits actually make someone more attractive in the eyes of potential partners—or if this so-called ‘bad boy’ appeal is just a modern fairy tale we keep telling ourselves to justify bad decisions.

My favorite saint is Maria Goretti. She is a truly modern saint, a symbol of something profoundly uncomfortable—something that has evolved in meaning over the last century.

To the Catholic Church, she is a martyr of purity, a girl who chose death rather than sexual defilement.

To my eyes, her story is far more complex: an act of brutal male entitlement, a crime of lust and control, a reflection of family dysfunction, and, perhaps most strikingly, a study of how trauma ripples across generations.

In the curious pantheon of Roman Catholic saints, few are as peculiar—or as profoundly instructive to family therapy—as St. Joseph of Cupertino (1603–1663).

Known as the "Flying Saint," Joseph was a Franciscan friar who reportedly levitated during prayer.

But before he became a celestial wonder, he was a bumbling, ridiculed, and unwanted man—a man who, by all worldly measures, should have been cast aside.

Radical Honesty, as an idea, taps into the modern longing for authenticity.

It offers a seductive promise: that if we just tell the unvarnished truth, our relationships will be stronger, our inner conflicts will dissolve, and our lives will be free from the psychic burden of deception.

But Radical Honesty is not just a communication strategy; it is a worldview—one that assumes truth can be spoken without distortion, that vulnerability is always constructive, and that the self is best understood through unfiltered externalization.

In this critique, we will go beyond social niceties and relational harm—let’s probe the nature of truth, selfhood, morality, and human connection.

Workplaces are not just sites of productivity; they are social environments where past experiences, particularly childhood trauma, can shape interpersonal dynamics.

A recent study by Liu, Xu, and Yao (2024) published in Personality and Individual Differences explores how childhood emotional abuse influences workplace interactions, particularly among employees driven by a strong desire for power.

Their findings suggest that unresolved emotional wounds from childhood may spill over into professional relationships, contributing to workplace conflict and social exclusion.

Ever wondered why some people seem to radiate joy while others walk around looking like they’ve just bitten into a lemon?

Science may have cracked the code, and it turns out, it all comes down to one simple trait: niceness.

Yes, that old-fashioned virtue your grandma swore by is more than just good manners—it’s a distinct psychological trait, and according to research, it’s strongly linked to happiness.

So if you’re looking for an easy mood booster (that doesn’t require expensive supplements or hours of meditation), start by being a little nicer.

What if the key to a more ethical world was already nestled inside our brains? A new study published in Molecular Psychiatry suggests that oxytocin—often called the "love hormone"—may play a significant role in our moral compass.

Researchers found that administering oxytocin via a nasal spray increased feelings of guilt and shame, making folks less willing to harm others, even when such harm could lead to greater benefits.

This stands in stark contrast to vasopressin, another neuropeptide involved in social behavior, which showed no such effects.

These findings suggest that oxytocin could influence not just our social interactions but our fundamental moral decisions, potentially offering new pathways for understanding psychiatric conditions that involve deficits in moral reasoning.

In the ever-evolving quest to understand human attraction, a new study published in Aesthetic Plastic Surgery has confirmed what many have long suspected: when people look at a female butt, their eyes are magnetically drawn to one place first—the intergluteal cleft, better known as the infamous butt crack.

Because this research is so vital for understanding the course of human destiny, researchers, (using eye-tracking technology), analyzed the subconscious visual habits of men and women when presented with images of female buttocks.

The findings? No matter the gender, people just can’t help but take a peek at the crack.

However, men and women have slightly different preferences when it comes to other rear-end details.

For as long as humans have been aware of their mortality, we have sought ways to soften the existential weight of death.

Some turn to religion, others to philosophy, and some—according to recent research—find solace in the transformative power of psychedelics.

A groundbreaking study published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs suggests that folks who use psychedelic substances report significantly lower levels of death anxiety, not because of the substances themselves, but because of the profound, transcendent experiences they facilitate.

When life throws challenges our way, support from friends and loved ones can make all the difference.

Whether it’s a kind word, a reassuring hug, or a simple pat on the back, these gestures help us navigate difficult moments.

A recent study published in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior explores the impact of supportive touch and verbal encouragement on self-esteem, self-efficacy, and emotional well-being.

Words of Comfort vs. A Hug: What Works Best?

We like to think we’re rational creatures—masters of our fate, captains of our soul, and all that.

But the truth is, most of our decisions aren’t made through cool, calculated logic.

Instead, we are heavily influenced by cognitive biases—deeply ingrained mental shortcuts that shape our choices without us even realizing it.

Some biases are helpful.

They evolved to keep us alive in a dangerous world where quick decision-making could mean the difference between life and death.

But in our modern environment, a few of these biases are exploited by Limbic Capitalism to work against us, leading us to make impulsive financial choices, avoiding personal growth, and settling for soul-crushing mediocrity.

If you’re feeling stuck, broke, or weak and ineffective, these three cognitive biases might be quietly running the show.

Let’s break them down—and more importantly, learn how to override them for a stronger, wealthier, and more resilient life (btw, I wish I learned this stuff in my profligate youth).