Psychology

Why the Politics of Hope not Optimism are the Future Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, January 4th 2014 One of the great myths of modern life is the power of optimism. Optimism, so the argument goes, can get you far. It can make you a winner, change individual life circumstances, make people rich or help them battle out of poverty. In the world of politics and campaigning, optimism is seen by many as the key particularly in American Presidential elections – such as Ronald Reagan in 1984 (‘It’s morning again in America’), and Barack Obama in 2008 (‘Yes We Can’) 

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The missing stories and, for some, the pain of growing up Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 8th 2013 On Saturday the Scottish football season opened in earnest with the first weekend programme of the new Scottish Premiership. There has been little excitement amongst fans, followers and media, despite the final reincorporation of the league authorities into one body, the Scottish Professional Football League, and the ending of football as a closed shop with the agreement of play-offs in and out of the lower league. But it all seems to most the status quo by another name, aided by the continuation

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Psychologists of the World Unite: You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Guilt! Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, January 1st 2011 Once upon a time how we saw the world was filled with certainty: economics, class and collectives. Now we live in a more uncertain, fluid age shaped by individualism, change and seeing ourselves as consumers. Along with this shift has come a new mantra – one signed up to by both New Labour and the Cameroon Conservatives: the power of psychology. Psychology as the new zeitgeist has been a long time coming. One can go back to the rise of

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