We live in a time when daily life seems defined by speed, self-imposed pressure, and the constant feeling of not being able to do everything. It seems increasingly difficult to stop and listen to our bodies and emotions. This is the topic of Dr. Noelia Samartin Veiga, a neuroscientist and clinical psychologist, and author of the book... You have come to live (Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, 2026).

You've surely encountered it. They bring a small plate of olives (or ham, or cured meats, or whatever). And quickly, the people around the table start nibbling. The plump olives are replaced by scrawny pits in a flash. But suddenly the pace stops. Only one remains. And no one dares to take it. It sits there in the middle until the waiter comes and says, "Won't anyone take the one of shame?" Everyone laughs, and someone says, "I'll do it, go ahead."

Psychologists know all sorts of details about their patients' lives and personalities, but professional secrecy obliges them to be discreet and not share that information with anyone. But what happens when a patient ends up in the dock or expresses an intention to commit a crime during therapy? In these cases, the law and professional ethics regulate the limits of professional secrecy and when it can become meaningless.

Nobel laureate in economics Richard H. Thaler (East Orange, New Jersey, 1945) has dedicated his career to demonstrating that human beings don't behave as economics textbooks say we should. We make mistakes, we are driven by emotions, we have biases and irrational expectations. And yet, or perhaps precisely because of this, we remain the protagonists of the decisions that shape the world.

It's the final dress fitting, and Maria Àngels Gómez emerges from the fitting room with a look of satisfaction on her face, of being able to wear the style she likes and no other. The dress is long, lilac, and has a pointed bodice that ends in a low neckline. "You look very pretty, elegant," one of the salespeople tells her as she looks at herself again and again in the mirror with a smile on her face. It's precisely the idea she had for her 50th wedding anniversary celebration, "something cheerful and elegant," she describes. Finding this dress has cost her a "big upset" and is yet another example of the ageist prejudices embedded in society.

Genocides leave a profound mark on human history. They don't just kill people, they also leave deep psychological wounds that are passed on from generation to generation—the word trauma comes from Greek and means wound-This is what will happen to the clean and clean people who will survive the extermination of Gaza. Even if they haven't seen a single bomb, these children will carry within them an inherited emotional and psychological burden. This burden of pain from previous generations is what is known as transgenerational trauma and refers to the transmission of pain, fear, emotional disconnection, and other psychological after-effects of traumatic events to one's offspring. Therefore, the shadow of today's inhumane slaughter on the Palestinians will be carried by these people for generations to come.

"I would like my farewell to be like a twilight in the Arctic Circle during the summer. That is to say, long and beautiful." This is how the wise man and professor of psychology Ramon Bayés, who died this Thursday at the age of 94, wished—and left in writing—for his final moments of life. Bayés dedicated a large part of his life to people, to understanding their behavior during life and their suffering when death approached.

Who goes to therapy? Elena Puig Guitart explains that not everyone who would or should go: "We don't have resources on a public scale. Going to a psychologist is a luxury, and it should be universal." Puig is a psychologist, but she has also found passion in giving advice on social media, where she has managed to gain thousands of followers who, precisely, cannot go to therapy and they ask for help about relationships, emotional management or mental health.

We've all heard it before: a poison rises in your gut, your pulse quickens, your jaw tightens, and it feels as if you're about to explode like a pressure cooker. Since time immemorial, humans have strived to find ways—more or less successful—to channel anger: counting to ten before speaking, punching a pillow, yelling into the wind (or at the unfortunate person in front of us)... But, according to a study published in the journal Nature, the solution could be found in a practice as simple as it is ancient: write the thought that has angered us on a piece of paper, tear it up and throw it away.

It may seem silly. It is the tapping, a self-help technique that involves using fingertips to perform acupressure while counteracting negative emotions with breathing exercises and positive affirmations. A technique that has generated skepticism among some mental health professionals.

We've all come across someone we've thought, to put it mildly, was a bit stupid. But what is stupidity? What makes someone stupid and what makes the rest of us think so? And why do brilliant minds say stupid things? These are some of the questions that French psychologist Jean-François Marmion attempts to answer in a book that brings together psychologists, philosophers, sociologists, and linguists entitled The psychology of stupidity (Peninsula).

Having a psychologist who can guide us professionally is now within reach of any company or busy person, thanks to Project yourself, a program subsidized by the Consortium for Continuing Education of Catalonia and the Ministry of Labor (SEPE). Susana Villafaina, coordinator of the Development Projects Department of the Official College of Psychology of Catalonia (COPC), explains this to us.

Draw a grid of boxes that represent all the weeks of your life. Paint the ones you've already lived sleeping. Joan Soler Sucarrats (Olot, 1998), a psychologist and mental health educator who offers workshops and talks and has 55,000 followers on Instagram. His goal is to develop an app with emotional well-being tools to help us navigate the stressful life of the 21st century.

A couple of weeks ago the MIT Media Lab presented the AHA project (Advancing Humans with AI), a research program that brings together 14 research groups from the prestigious university around the question "How can we design artificial intelligence in the service of human flourishing and fulfilling lives?" Amidst the corporate festival of generative AI models, it is encouraging to see how research projects are proliferating to understand how interaction with AI is modifying behaviors, expectations, and imaginaries.

A four-month-old baby, sitting on its mother's lap, looks at a screen displaying dinosaurs of different colors and sizes, and, from time to time, phrases in Chinese can be heard. Across the room, a team of researchers scrutinizes the baby's reactions and records reaction times to stimuli. This is one of the experiments conducted at the Childhood Research Laboratory at the Center for Brain Cognition (CBC) at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), where they attempt to decipher questions such as how we perceive language before speaking or how we face the challenge of learning two languages ​​instead of one.

The testimonies of young people, families and psychologists in today's dossier shed light on a situation that had been sensed, warned of, but not yet made sufficiently visible. Mental disorders have grown among the general population as a result of the pandemic and lockdown, but among young people this growth has been especially worrying.