At a time when there are concerns that Covid is being over-diagnosed, and its impact exaggerated, it is useful to look at another claim: that traumatic events in childhood have a major effect for the rest of a person’s life. On 18 November 1987 a fire at King’s Cross Underground station in London killed 31... Read More

In the last few years, there have been lots of news reports (e.g., here), documentary films (e.g., Yoland Zauberman’s “M”), and articles (e.g., here and here) about sexual abuse of children in Orthodox Jewish communities. In March 2017, for instance, Haaretz reported that the Israeli police arrested 22 ultra-Orthodox Jews for sex crimes against minors... Read More

There was a time when boys played games of marbles following strict playground rules: contestants had to stand a prescribed distance away from the little pyramid of marbles, and chuck only marbles of the prescribed size. Rules ruled. Piaget was intrigued by the explanations children gave for moral judgements, and the playground is the arena... Read More