Volume 1, Issue 4

Addiction is among the most pervasive and costly public health challenges of the modern era, affecting hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide across all demographic groups. Despite this reach, addiction continues to be widely misunderstood as a moral failing or a simple matter of willpower. This paper argues that addiction is, at its core, a neuropsychological condition — one shaped by measurable and scientifically documented alterations in dopamine-mediated reward systems, reinforcement mechanisms, and dependency pathways that fundamentally alter cognition, behaviour, and emotional regulation. Drawing on peer-reviewed neurobiological and psychological literature, this paper examines the neurobiology of the reward circuit, the role of dopamine in reinforcing drug-taking behaviour, the mechanisms by which dependency and neuroadaptation emerge, and the psychological and environmental factors that modulate vulnerability. It further discusses evidence-based approaches to treatment and critically interrogates the moral discourse that surrounds addiction. The evidence collectively supports a reconceptualisation of addiction as a chronic brain disorder requiring integrated neuropsychological care. 

Digital marketing is converging on neurobiological design principles, designed to systematically activate the mesolimbic dopamine reward pathway and keep consumers engaged and set off on the fast track to purchase. This paper investigates how the structural approach of dopamine-based marketing design, including variable reinforcement schedules, algorithmic personalisation, infinite scroll architecture, artificial scarcity cues and gamified incentive systems, relate to the progressive deterioration of consumer decision quality, called decision fatigue. Based on peer-reviewed data from the fields of consumer neuroscience, behavioural psychology and empirical e-commerce data, the paper proposes that these are part of a self-reinforcing cognitive depletion cycle wherein sustained stimulation of dopamine levels leads to higher frequency of decision demands, which depletes executive resources, leaving the consumer vulnerable to algorithmic direction and compliance to their impulses. It also discusses the ethical and regulatory shortcomings of the current regulatory framework in comparison to the more ‘neurochemically’ based marketing practices and outlines the conceptual model and future research direction that is proposed. 

The John Austin Command Theory of Law remains one of the most influential theories in the field of Jurisprudence. Developed during the nineteenth century, Austin’s theory sought to distinguish law from morality, religion, and social customs by defining law as the command of a sovereign backed by sanctions. The theory laid the foundation for modern legal positivism and influenced later jurists such as H.L.A. Hart and Hans Kelsen. However, despite its historical significance, Austin’s Command Theory has been subjected to extensive criticism on several grounds, including its inability to explain constitutional law, customary law, international law, and modern democratic governance. This research paper critically analyses Austin’s Command Theory by examining its essential features, philosophical foundations, and practical implications. The paper further evaluates the major criticisms advanced by jurists such as Hart, Salmond, and Duguit, while also analysing whether Austin’s theory retains relevance in contemporary legal systems characterised by constitutional supremacy, welfare governance, human rights jurisprudence, and international legal obligations.

This paper concludes that the four aspects of alienation – alienation from product, alienation from process, alienation from species-being and alienation from others – found in Marx are all alive and kicking in contemporary algorithmic labour within platform capitalism. This paper argues that digital alienation is not just an industrial alienation, but a qualitatively new reconfiguration of labour relations based on systematic analysis of recent empirical research (2021-2025) and case studies of labour relations in gig economy platforms, content moderation systems and labour involved in data annotation. The paper examines various examples, such as Uber drivers, Meta content moderators, Amazon MTurkers and call centre workers, to illustrate how algorithmic management systems produce classic Marxist alienation and emergent alienation (including epistemic alienation and temporal boundary collapse). The paper thus builds upon critical political economy and shows the continuing analytic relevance of alienation theory to the understanding of the exploitation of labour in the digital age, and points to the need for theory development to address some of the conceptual gaps within alienation theory. The analysis finds that to theorise digital workers as alienated workers, not entrepreneurs, is essential if one is to achieve any depth of understanding or to mobilise against the platform-based exploitation. 

Loneliness in childhood is no ordinary challenge; it’s a force which can profoundly affect the way we turn into, and frequently leaves its marks well into adulthood. Drawing on research in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and attachment theory, this paper demonstrates how the effects of lacking significant social relationships last beyond a fleeting moment of sadness. Early loneliness embeds itself into personality, attachment styles and even into one’s worldview. In this argument, based on long term studies, the evidence of the social brain, and Bowlby’s Internal Working Model (IWM), it is obvious that children growing up in isolation become better at sensing threats, insecure about the people around them, and marked by a distrust and uncertainty of the world. Whether these changes are permanent, of course, is another question this paper asks, as is whether targeted therapy and relationships can tame the effects? The findings are important for all child welfare, policy, and education stakeholders, not only for psychologists.

Childhood loneliness has been studied by many researchers, and the following keywords illustrate some of the areas of research in which this topic is explored. Many researchers have studied childhood loneliness, and the following keywords give an indication of the areas of research in which the topic is explored.