
Are you a “you” or an “I”? What difference does it make anyway?
These are the Lascaux cave paintings. Nobody knows exactly why they were made. That’s where this project starts. Last night an old friend messaged me. We hadn’t spoken in a

These are the Lascaux cave paintings. Nobody knows exactly why they were made. That’s where this project starts. Last night an old friend messaged me. We hadn’t spoken in a

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

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

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. Nothing big, just a few lines and a couple of experiments. But something else needed doing first. Tomorrow would be better. I

“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

These are the Lascaux cave paintings. Nobody knows exactly why

A therapist who works with sexual abuse survivors looked at