In this interview, we introduce Tamara Stupalová, a hypnotist, technology entrepreneur and former humanitarian worker whose professional journey has taken her from research and analytical work with UNHCR in Lebanon, El Salvador and the Czech Republic to integrative hypnosis and the development of tools incorporating artificial intelligence.

Intrusive thoughts are commonly understood through cognitive mechanisms involving unwanted mental events, threatening interpretations, uncertainty and attempts at cognitive control. Less attention has focused on the possibility that intrusive hypothetical thinking may arise when an individual encounters another person's uncertainty, particularly when that uncertainty is expressed through prescriptive judgements about identity, values, or acceptable behaviour.

There are moments in life when the greatest danger is not necessarily what we do, but what we postpone doing. Imagine someone caring for an ageing parent. Over several days, subtle changes begin to emerge. Their parent becomes increasingly tired, eats less, moves with difficulty and occasionally appears confused. Something seems different, yet the seriousness of the situation remains uncertain.

Guilt is an adaptive self-conscious emotion that can promote reparation, accountability and preservation of interpersonal relationships. Under particular developmental conditions, however, guilt may become disconnected from proportionate responsibility. Research has independently demonstrated that guilt can increase compliance, that guilt-related dispositions can interact with interrogative suggestibility, that adverse relational experiences can contribute to maladaptive interpersonal guilt, and that early relational trauma is associated with disruptions in epistemic trust and increased epistemic credulity. Recent evidence further suggests parent–child similarities in particular forms of interpersonal guilt. These literatures have nevertheless remained largely separate.

Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) aggregates within families, yet the language of “inheritance” can obscure the complex pathways through which anxiety vulnerability is transmitted. Genetic factors contribute to liability, but psychological transmission also occurs through threat modelling,

Everyday forgetting is often described as a memory problem, although many lapses may arise before the integrity of stored information is tested. Attention can be captured by uncertainty, interpersonal tension, or anticipated disruption, leaving fewer cognitive resources available for encoding, maintaining intentions, and retrieving information.

Media environments can influence how individuals interpret social norms, acceptable behaviour, harm, responsibility, and interpersonal meaning. This influence is not uniform and should not be understood as a direct or deterministic effect. Rather, media effects may depend on individual, developmental, social, emotional, and contextual factors. Psychological vulnerability may alter how media is received by affecting attention, emotional regulation, reflective distance, threat perception, and social interpretation.

When people speak about their beliefs, they often refer to them as if they were solid objects: unchanging, firm, and self-evident truths about the world. “I believe I’m not good enough,” “I believe people can’t be trusted,” or “I believe kindness matters.” Yet, these beliefs are not fixed structures imposed on the mind from the outside. They are, instead, constructed realities, shaped by subtle psychological processes.

In the twenty-first century, the human brain is exposed to levels of stimulation unparalleled in evolutionary history. The daily flood of notifications, messages, and data streams exerts a constant pull on attention and cognition. Neuroscience demonstrates that the brain adapts through neuroplastic mechanisms, and over time, these adaptations may alter not only individual functioning but also the long-term trajectory of human evolution.