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From the archives

Referendum Trudeau

He campaigned in poetry but governed in prose

Jeff Costen

Rinkside Reading

What does hockey’s literature say about the sport?

Naoko Asano

Alarm Bells

Fort McMurray and fires hence

Bob Armstrong
Our Contributors

Keith Oatley

Keith Oatley is professor emeritus of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and winner of the 1994 Commonwealth Prize for Best First Novel. His most recent novel, Therefore Choose, was published in 2010 by Goose Lane. His recent books on Psychology include Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction (Wiley 2011) and The Passionate Muse: Exploring Emotion in Stories (Oxford University Press 2012). He wishes to thank his colleagues Maja Djikic, Jacob Hirsch, Raymond Mar, Jennifer de la Paz, Jordan Peterson and Sara Zoeterman.

Articles by
Keith Oatley

The Care in Health Care

The love experienced in infancy affects us far later in the medical system. April 2016
It has long been recognized that mammals are born immature and need to be cared for by parents, but it was not until more recently that the psychological system was discovered that enabled the caregiving to take place. This system is attachment. It is especially developed in humans. It is the means by which infants stay closely connected with their mothers or other…

In the Now

How deep breathing became a popular escape from the madding crowd November 2014
Forty years ago, the idea of mindfulness had not been much thought about in the West. In Mindful America: The Mutual Transformation of Buddhist Meditation and American Culture, Jeff Wilson, who teaches religious and East Asian studies at Renison University College at the University of Waterloo, shows how mindfulness has found its way into western…

Why Fiction is Good for You

Forget moral edification: psychological research shows literature’s mind-altering effects. July–August 2011
Graham Greene once said in an interview that too many of his characters left from the door by which they came in. In some of Greene’s fiction, though, change occurs: the whisky priest in The Power and the Glory and Holly Martins in The Third Man each leave by a door through which they did not…

An MD’s Feelings

An unusual medical memoir helps patients experience their doctors’ vulnerabilities. September 2006