Benedict Carey

Benedict Carey is a former science reporter for The Times. He was also a health and medical writer for The Los Angeles Times, a freelance journalist and a staff writer for Health magazine.

He has written three books: “How We Learn” (2014), about the cognitive science of learning, and “Poison Most Vial” (2011) and “Island of the Unknowns” (2009), science mysteries for middle schoolers.

Mr. Carey graduated from the University of Colorado with a mathematics degree in 1983. In 1985 he completed a one-year journalism program at Northwestern University.

Latest

Guest Essay
I Answer the Phone at a Mental Health Hotline. Here’s What I’ve Learned.
Callers need more than just a sympathetic ear. They need an informed listener.
By Benedict Carey
Overlooked No More: Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers, Creators of a Personality Test
Mother and daughter, they developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which has helped millions of people discover if they are introverts or extroverts or thinkers or feelers.
By Glenn Rifkin and Benedict Carey
Dr. Aaron T. Beck, Developer of Cognitive Therapy, Dies at 100
It was an answer to Freudian analysis: a pragmatic, thought-monitoring approach to treating anxiety, depression and other mental disorders, and it changed psychiatry.
By Benedict Carey
Mind
Science Plays the Long Game. But People Have Mental Health Issues Now.
I’ve reported on behavior and mental health for 20 years. As I exit, I can’t help but wonder why researchers have placed so little emphasis on helping people in distress today.
By Benedict Carey
In the last year, older adults tended to be more positive than younger ones, surveys show.
By Benedict Carey
Mind
Why Older People Managed to Stay Happier Through the Pandemic
New surveys over the last year show that the ability to cope improves with age.
By Benedict Carey
A Trauma Expert Puts the Meghan and Harry Interview in Context
Commentators describe the couple’s experience as “trauma.” But strictly speaking, trauma is an event that alters your mind, leaving you helpless and terrified.
By Benedict Carey
The pandemic has meant more anxiety and trips to the E.R. for some teens.
By Benedict Carey
For Some Teens, It’s Been a Year of Anxiety and Trips to the E.R.
During the pandemic, suicidal thinking is up. And families find that hospitals can’t handle adolescents in crisis.
By Benedict Carey
‘Right Now Feels So Long and Without Any End in Sight’
More than 700 people have been keeping digital diaries as part of Pandemic Journaling Project. It may be the most complete record of our shifting moods in this isolating year.
By Benedict Carey