Micro Essays

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The river beneath the mood

Underneath every mood, every flash of irritability, every inexplicable flatness, something is always flowing. Not emotion exactly, but something quieter, more in the background. While the brain feels like it’s

Why Florence Hasn’t Done Any Drawing Today

I have long been fascinated by Lisa Feldman Barrett’s work and the Theory of Constructed Emotion, which tells us that emotions are not so much triggered as constructed. There isn’t

You’re Not Resisting. You’re Predicting.

The resistance you feel at the prospect of picking up the pencil and sitting down to sketch a tree (or anything else) feels like a reaction. It feels like the

You were going to do some sketching today

You were going to do some sketching today. Nothing big, just a few lines and a couple of experiments. But something else needed doing first. Tomorrow would be better. I

“Neoliberal claptrap”

“Neoliberal claptrap.” That was American novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt’s verdict on the kind of content that promises “Seven steps to happiness” or “How to be Your Best Self (Even

The Pathologizing Gaze: When Therapy Repeats the Original Wound

I go to therapy. Partly because I think it’s good practice for someone who works on the deeper levels of the psyche with other people. It keeps me grounded, reveals

But you can’t just let go, can you?

A therapist who works with sexual abuse survivors looked at