Pnewsology

The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 17/04/2026)

Week ending 17/04/2026

All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

It’s been an odd week watching the same wars killing people rumbling on but with some odd bits and pieces happening in between. And a lot of these seem to relate to coming second.

We saw Justin Rose from Hampshire come second in the US Masters for the 4^th time and watched as Arsenal lost to Bournemouth leaving their fans to wonder if, yet again, Arsenal will have a year of coming second without winning any medals.  We also saw Prince Harry, who has seemingly struggled with being ‘The Spare’ to his brother, try to relaunch his career with a tour of Australia and heard how Brooklyn Beckham is still estranged from his family, who much as they may have tried their best, have made him feel second to ‘Brand Beckham’.   

And bizarrely we have seen Trump try to put himself on a par with Jesus (??!!) and heard as him and his cronies challenged the Pope about who knows the bible the best!  A question instantly answered when Hesgeth quoted ‘the scriptures’ which turned out to be a line from Samual L Jackson in the film ‘Pulp Fiction’!  Trump and co seem to hate coming second at anything – even Godliness!

Being second can therefore be a hard role to deal with. 

Some seem to fall at the final hurdle and can’t quite take the lead.  Maybe due to self-sabotage and actively undermining their own success? Through not quite having the self-belief and spiralling into a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure?  Or simple complacency and a belief that success should be there’s without putting in the effort?  Good old sports psychology can help here with tricks such as positive self-talk, reframing previous failures and visualising success.

Others, live a life of envy and bitterness as they feel overlooked or overshadowed by those that by accident of birth came first and get all the glory.  For these – some perspective taking and gratitude could do the trick.

But for those who need to win and beat everyone else at everything? Maybe they need to take a good long hard look at themselves! Work out what they are compensating for and take themselves off to a remote island on their own for some very prolonged reflection – preferably with very little food and water!

But there are some benefits to being second.  JD Vance and David Lammy seem to have struck up a strange friendship and are spending time together to discuss war and Rachel Reeves has finally used her seconder role to speak out against the US / Israel attack on Iran.  Perhaps they feel freer to speak as they are not in charge? Maybe they bond over a good moan about their leaders? Maybe it’s a relief to be able to blame those above? Or maybe they are just waiting until it is their time to take control?

And then we’ve heard from Jamie Murray as he retires from tennis after winning multiple awards for doubles tennis in the Olympics, David Cup and International tournaments.  He seems to have thrived even though his younger brother Andy is more famous! And Andy seems to have massive respect for his older brother without any sense of envy or bitterness of either side.  What a fabulous family they seem to be!  For them, coming second seems not even to be a thing. Their mum seems to have done a great job! 

We all have a place in the world and feeling settled in this place is probably the greatest key to happiness.  Some desire to rise up the ranks can drive ambition, hard work, and a determination to make thing better for both ourselves and those around us.  But wanting to be better than everyone is a sad state of affairs that creates envy, frustration and a destructive determination to show everyone how great you are (when you are clearly not).  What we need is a sense of self belief that is realistic and fair and a sense that ‘good enough’ is often better than the best.  And may be what we also need is for Jamie and Andy’s mum to parent all the men currently ruining the world.