Thought Leader

By John Hunter, Ph.D If you have ever been invited by an enthusiastic family member, friend, or work colleague to attend the graduation of a seminar that “transformed” their life, but they refused to provide details about what actually took place in this seminar, then you were probably being invited to a large group awareness…

When the first season of True Detective was broadcast — with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as two detectives out to solve a case that seemed intractable in the extreme, with a gritty cinematic style and refusal to compromise itself for the sake of satisfying the usual Hollywood saccharine, sentimentalist demands regarding plot structure —…

In a sense, the titular question, above, is redundant. Technology is, after all, already dominant — a claim that hardly needs to be substantiated with evidence; it is there for everyone to perceive on a daily basis. Not that the objects of ‘perception’ are self-evident in any straightforward way. In social reality a good deal…

By the Division for Research & Methodology (DRM) The Psychological Society of South Africa’s (PsySSA) Division for Research and Methodology (DRM) is committed to the teaching, practice and promotion of relevant, appropriate and ethical scientific research in South Africa. We are disturbed by and strongly opposed to the practice of misusing racial classification in scientific…

By Rebecca Helman and Neziswa Titi In their interview with Elspeth Probyn, Vivienne Bozalek, Tamara Shefer and Ronelle Carolissen argue that “[s]hame has typically been understood as a negative emotion, a view which is prevalent in individualist, psychologising discourses about human experience”. Conversely Probyn argues that shame can be a generative force, one which is…

The recent devastating fire that nearly destroyed the more than 800 year-old Parisian Gothic cathedral, Notre Dame, has put something important in perspective. One could not but notice that the shock caused by this event was not restricted to Paris, or even France, which one might have expected. Understandably, Parisians have always loved this architectural…

By Rebecca Helman I remember the first time I gave a talk to a group of strangers about that fact that I had been raped. The shame of it felt like a weight, trying to crush me into the floor as I attempted to stand up tall and look unblinkingly out into the room. In…

It is with great concern that the Sexuality and Gender Division (SGD) of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) has been following Caster Semenya’s¹ quest to compete in international athletics. The International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) is proposing a new ruling to set a limit on female athletes’ testosterone levels in certain track…

Two days ago my partner and I went on a whirlwind visit to Gauteng and North-West Province – flying to Johannnesburg and driving from there in a rented car to the Potschefstroom campus of North-West University, where I had been invited to participate in a debate on the question: ‘Is God still necessary for morality?’…

Stagflation is an economic condition where inflation is high, economic growth is slow and unemployment is high. To say that South Africa is suffering in a state of stagflation is an understatement. Everyday the cost of living increases, the availability of economic opportunity diminishes and joblessness expands. To confirm this we have been told that…