Christina Isakoglou

Mind-controlling fungi: reality or science fiction?

Mind-controlling fungi: reality or science fiction?

The series “The Last of Us” (based on the video game) brought a scary and post-apocalyptic scenario to our screens: that of a fungal pandemic in which infected people turn into zombies with the sole goal of spreading the fungus to the uninfected. It makes for a very compelling horror story, but is any of it rooted in reality or is it all just imagination? The answer lies somewhere in between.

Aversive to touch, not to humans

Aversive to touch, not to humans

We experience the world through our senses. What happens though when sensory inputs become too much (or too little) to bear from a very young age? Surely, the world must feel different, and our experience of it would change along.

Drama? Or trauma?

Drama? Or trauma?

The representation of mental disorders in society and pop culture repeatedly misses, at best, the nuances associated with the experience of living with a mental disorder. In the attempt of characterizing psychiatric disorders by creating dramatic and oversimplified caricatures, have we failed to recognize something fundamental that we all share to some extent despite our diagnostic boundaries?

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