Of course, therapy and its vernacular are not solely to blame for our era of isolation. Rather, therapy and other tools of introspection have become ways to justify our lack of access to external stimulation. Instead of using therapy to untangle our desires and fears so that we may effectively act on them, therapy becomes the goal in itself—to... See more

There are infinite quotidian human experiences ripe for interpreting: putting off housework, caring about who I sit next to at a dinner party, struggling to get dressed. They stack up every day. I’m particularly fond of using them to draw ungenerous conclusions: I’m shallow, selfish, lazy, dishonest. I’ve trained myself away from defending my... See more

The self is not something you can set out looking for; it reveals itself gradually through the choices you make.

We must cease to concern ourselves with our unique suffering – whether we are happy or sad, fortunate or unfortunate, good or bad – and give up our neurotic and debilitating journeys of self-discovery. Art of true value requires, like a

... See more

The so-called ‘HR-ification’ of interpersonal relations – an appropriate term, given the particularly capitalist bent of its aetiology – involves Insta-therapists encouraging the use of social scripts full of meaningless jargon, such as the much maligned template above, to ‘protect your peace’ and ‘assert your boundaries’ against those... See more