Beatrice Popescu

Psychiatry (3rd ed.) by Neel Burton, MD

Psychiatry, the new textbook by Neel Burton, philosopher, psychiatrist and writer as he loves to present himself to its newest readership, is not the typical manual a student or a resident in psychiatry is used to. The author, seduced forever by the art of psychiatry as much as by the art of philosophy, is therefore challenged to make the discipline more accessible, interesting and vibrant to the students eager to delve into the hottest specialism on the market, considered not long time ago the ‘Cinderella’ of healthcare.

Being Irrationally Funny as a Cognitive Psychologist

The idea of interviewing Dan Ariely was somehow latent on my mind since I started being interested in cognitive psychology and cognitive behavior psychotherapy, but actually got more ardent ever since irrationality became a research topic for his team at Duke University. I picked him as an interviewee thinking not only at his exceptional skills as a researcher and as Kahnemann ‘disciple’, but mainly for his fantastic wit, true modesty and utmost interest in making people’s lives easier and more comfortable, by creating awareness on a lot of topics otherwise neglected. Dan Ariely’s very agreeable personality and humor would not let you think of him as a burnt casualty who, in his youth struggled to survive a personal drama, so well-documented in his paper “Painful lessons” posted on the MIT website (http://web.mit.edu/ariely/www/MIT/Papers/mypain.pdf). I think reading his paper and also this transcribed interview with him would be also comforting for people who found out about Bucharest fire incident that rocked our society and also for people who are personally related to this tragedy.

On the Future of the Humanities: Interview With Professor Mircea Flonta, Epistemologist and Philosopher of Science

Beatrice Popescu and Andrei Simionescu-Panait (EJOP): The last decade has hosted a fast pace of publishing from your part. What was the project towards which your efforts were directed over the last three years? Is it editorial?