Social anxiety: why the mundane can be terrifying

Dean Burnett: Experiencing serious social anxiety in everyday situations is actually quite common, and may even have a useful purpose.

How I overcame my fear of spiders

Arachnophobic? Terrified by webs and creepy-crawlies? Garden sheds don’t have to be no-go areas – tackle that phobia!

The Marshmallow Test review – if you can resist, you will go far

Do you take your gratification instant or deferred? And why does it matter? American psychologist Walter Mischel tests your willpower. By Zoe Williams

This column will change your life: Morning Pages

'You can write about whatever's on your mind: petty worries, soaring plans, angry tirades,' Oliver Burkeman says. 'I wish I'd started long ago'

This column will change your life: false reasons

'You can persuade voters a policy's good, apparently,' Oliver Burkeman says, 'by "explaining" that it's good because it's good'

When talking about your problems actually makes them worse

Philippa Perry: As Walter Mischel says, distancing yourself from a traumatic event will help you deal with it better than continually reliving it obsessionally

Lonely potato syndrome: how I invented a mental disorder

Dean Burnett: Understanding and dealing with mental illness is complicated enough, without idiots going around making up new ones

This column will change your life: the importance of temporal landmarks

Build more temporal landmarks into your life, says Oliver Burkeman, and you'll experience time differently than if your days and years are one undifferentiated mush

David Smail obituary

Clinical psychologist and writer whose work focused on the damaging effects of an unequal society

Riveted review – the science of why we find things compelling

Jim Davies's exploration of the psychology behind our passions and interests is full of attractive ideas, writes Nicola Davis