NOUS began as founder Lisa's MA project in publication design — an investigation into the power of books and magazines as tools for communication and education around mental health. The first two issues were given away free, funded entirely by crowdfunding supporters who believed that a print magazine about the inner life of the mind was worth making. Issue three was partially funded by art print sales of Tracy Emin and supported by Manchester Metropolitan University's Arts For Health programme. By issue four, NOUS had found its way into handpicked cafés, bars, and bookstores across Europe and the United States.
The name carries a double resonance — the French word for "us" and the Greek word for "mind" — and the magazine lives in exactly that intersection. Published biannually from Germany, each issue takes readers on a journey in three parts: short stories, interviews, poetry, and essays exploring one chapter of mental health. The subjects range from philosophy and everyday psychology to the experience of mental illness, treated with the kind of empathy and honesty that clinical language rarely achieves. Every issue is Riso-printed by Team Trident Press in ever-changing dual-colour variations, giving each edition a tactile, handmade quality that feels like an act of care in itself.
NOUS describes itself as a magazine for mind culture and empathic thinking — and that phrase is precisely right. It does not pathologise or prescribe. It sits with the reader in the complicated, sometimes painful, sometimes beautiful business of having a mind, and it does so on paper that feels warm to the touch.
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