In July, the Edge.org held its annual “Master Class” in Napa, California and brought together some influential thinkers to talk about “The Science of Human Nature.

Back in 1970, three psychology professors pulled off a hoax that doubled as medical research. They brought Dr. Myron L. Fox, “an authority on the application of mathematics to human behavior,” to a conference near Lake Tahoe and let him talk about “Mathematical Game Theory as Applied to Physician Education.

Just when you thought that Freudian theory was dead, it makes a comeback, thanks to Slavoj Žižek, our favorite Slovenian philosopher and critical theorist. Above, Žižek offers a reading that finds Freud’s model of the psyche at work in the Marx Brothers. Hyper Groucho is the super-ego; rational Chico, the ego; and mute Harpo, the id.

Ray Bradbury, one of America’s beloved sci-fi writers, turns 91 today. So how about a little party favor: This retro clip takes you back to the 1970s (we believe) and it features Bradbury giving a rather intriguing take on the role of literature and art. For the author of Fahrenheit 451, literature has more than an aesthetic purpose.

According this fascinating piece in The Smithsonian, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1979 weepfest The Champ is the most consistently effective tearjerker in the history of film.

With freedom come choices. Every choice is an opportunity to select the best possible outcome, the one that would make us happiest. More choices lead to more happiness, right? Of course we find the opposite to be true. As choices increase, so does anxiety.

Time to roll out a new media collection — a big collection of Cultural Icons. Here you will find great writers, dazzling filmmakers and musicians, brilliant philosophers and scientists — figures who have changed our cultural landscape throughout the years. You’ll see them in video, or hear their voices in audio.

In 1961, the great psychologist Carl Gustav Jung died at his villa at Küsnacht, on the shore of Lake Zurich, Switzerland. He was 86 years old.
Jung viewed death as a fulfillment, rather than a negation, of life.

The footage above is from an extremely rare – and unexpectedly entertaining – video of the philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901-1981), giving a lecture at The Catholic University of Louvain in 1972. The film is notable for a couple of reasons:
1. In France, Lacan’s rock star status owed much to his popular public seminars.

Daniel J. Levitin, author of the best-selling books This Is Your Brain On Music and The World In Six Songs, is James McGill Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal.