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Phil Harris
Jul 13, 20231 min read
The Private Life of Psychopaths
In training sessions people are often fascinated by, and want to understand, psychopathic behaviours. I often utilise different moral...
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Phil Harris
Mar 7, 20213 min read
Wisdom vs Loneliness
Research over the last decade has shown that loneliness is an important determinant of health. It is associated with considerable...
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Phil Harris
Oct 23, 20204 min read
Friends: Why We Get Picky?
We like people like us. However, as we age, we get even more selective about our friendship groups. When humans age, they tend to favor...
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Phil Harris
Sep 11, 20203 min read
Binge Alcohol-Lose Empathy
People who binge-drink show more extensive dysfunction across their brains than previously realised, a new study from the University of...
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Phil Harris
Jun 15, 20205 min read
Name Emotion Tame Emotion
I was recently looking for some research on a separate project and came across this early pioneering study in language and emotional...
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Phil Harris
Apr 29, 20201 min read
Can Low Empathy Be Toxic?
In Training and in Reflective Practice sessions the issue of empathy, relationships and outcomes is often discussed. This is...
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Phil Harris
Mar 27, 20203 min read
How to Support Others on Lock Down
In uncertain times, supporting your friends and family can help them make it through. But your comforting words can have different...
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Phil Harris
Nov 10, 20191 min read
If You are Reading This, You are Probably Very WEIRD
I have often said that what we really know about psychology is what we actually know about psychology students. These tend to be the...
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Phil Harris
May 19, 20193 min read
Artificial Intelligence Therapist are on Their Way-But What are the Rules?
Interactions with artificial intelligence (AI) will become an increasingly common aspect of our lives. A team at the Technical University...
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Phil Harris
Apr 24, 20193 min read
Empathy: Too Much Like Hard Work?
Empathy, the ability to understand the feelings of another person, is often viewed as a virtue that encourages helping behaviors. But...
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Phil Harris
Apr 13, 20192 min read
The Evolution of Empathy
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute and the Santa Fe Institute have developed a new model to explain the evolutionary origins of...
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Phil Harris
Dec 2, 20181 min read
The Magic Cure for Alcoholism: Empathy
A great privilege of running this blog is to share some of the work of practitioners who have inspired me but whose work is not often as...
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Phil Harris
Sep 1, 20185 min read
Free Online Compassion Training from the Center for Healthy Minds
Working with trauma is hard. Being exposed to the pain and suffering others can have significant impact on us as a worker and as a human...
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Phil Harris
Aug 22, 20183 min read
Kill with Kindness: Why Too Much Empathy is a Bad Thing
People who empathize easily with others do not necessarily understand them well. To the contrary: Excessive empathy can even impair...
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Phil Harris
Aug 22, 20185 min read
Head or Heart, But Not Both: Empathy in the Brain
New research shows a simple reason why even the most intelligent, complex brains can be taken by a swindler's story -- one that upon a...
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Phil Harris
Aug 22, 20184 min read
The D-Factor: How Evil Are You?
Is there such a thing as an evil personality type? This is a challenging question for many in the field. By and large, people who are...
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Phil Harris
Aug 9, 20181 min read
Could You Switch Off A Robot That Was Begging for Its Life?
I love what moral dilemmas can tell us about our brains and how we make decisions. This is a great example of a moral dilemma which pits...
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Phil Harris
Jul 4, 20183 min read
Emotional Pitch and Speech
In teaching Motivational Interviewing I describe how we need to listen to the emotional emphasis of the client's statements rather than...
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Phil Harris
Jun 21, 20182 min read
The Empathy Assumption
Recently, researchers have debunked the theories canonized in Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People that assume you...
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Phil Harris
Sep 14, 20171 min read
See Empathy Develop in Real Time
In lecturers and training on adolescent development I often discuss the emergence of empathy during puberty. Now research has caught the...
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