Essays

Essays on psychological clarity, emotional regulation, identity, and the conditions that allow people to think, relate, and live with coherence.

Some truths can’t be compressed; they need space to become clear.

These essays are not reactions or hot takes. They examine the psychological structures beneath everyday experience — how attention, emotion, identity, and meaning actually function under modern conditions. Drawing from psychology, lived experience, and cultural analysis, each piece is written to clarify what’s happening beneath the surface, not to entertain, provoke, or reassure.

RJ Starr 11/30/25 RJ Starr 11/30/25

The Psychology of Panic: When the Body Sounds a False Alarm

Panic is the body’s alarm system firing in the absence of danger—a survival reflex turned inward. This essay explores the psychology of panic, tracing how biology, thought, and emotion collide to create the sensation of catastrophe. It examines fear loops, loss of control, and the process of rebuilding trust in the body’s intelligence after it has mistaken activation for threat.

RJ Starr 8/18/25 RJ Starr 8/18/25

Emotional Posture as a Psychological Framework

We don’t just feel emotions—we hold them. This essay explores emotional posture as a framework for understanding how individuals and systems unconsciously structure emotion to stay intact. From personal bracing to institutional rigidity, posture reveals what we’re protecting, what we’ve survived, and what might be ready to shift.

RJ Starr 6/21/25 RJ Starr 6/21/25

The Theater of Threat: How Emotional Immaturity, Spectacle Psychology, and Desensitization Are Undermining Global Sanity

Political leaders now reference World War III like it’s a soundbite. But beneath the drama lies something more dangerous: a culture addicted to threat, a public numbed by repetition, and leaders emotionally unequipped to lead. This essay explores the psychology behind the rhetoric—and how we can stay awake in a world that rewards escalation.

RJ Starr 6/19/25 RJ Starr 6/19/25

Cruelty as Spectacle: How Emotional Dominance Became the Performance of Our Time

Public humiliation has become a cultural ritual—rewarded, repeated, and optimized for attention. This essay explores how cruelty now functions as emotional performance and control, tracing its psychological structure, audience complicity, and the urgent need for repair in a world that rewards spectacle over sincerity.

RJ Starr 5/19/25 RJ Starr 5/19/25

The Outrage Industrial Complex: How Emotion Became a Weapon, a Business, and a Way of Life

We’re not just exhausted—we’re emotionally overdrawn. This essay explores how media, politics, and social platforms profit from our outrage, why it feels addictive, and how we can reclaim emotional clarity in a culture that thrives on reactivity.

RJ Starr 5/12/25 RJ Starr 5/12/25

Being the Adult in the Room: Emotional Immaturity in an Unhinged World

From airline meltdowns to viral tantrums and political spectacle, emotional immaturity has become the norm—not the outlier. This essay explores the quiet power of being the adult in the room: the one who stays calm, grounded, and emotionally intelligent in a world that rewards chaos. When everyone else is unraveling, maturity isn’t just a personal strength—it’s a public service.

RJ Starr 1/6/25 RJ Starr 1/6/25

The Psychology of Resilience

Resilience is a dynamic process shaped by flexibility, coping strategies, and learned behaviors. This article explores emotional regulation, cognitive reframing, and purposeful action as core components, showing how resilience grows through manageable challenges, support, and self-compassion.

RJ Starr 12/4/24 RJ Starr 12/4/24

Understanding Social Anxiety and Avoidance

Social anxiety arises from fear of negative evaluation, driving avoidance behaviors that worsen distress over time. This article explores the psychological mechanisms behind the cycle and presents strategies like graduated exposure and cognitive restructuring to build resilience through discomfort.

Emotional intelligence isn’t just a workplace skill or buzzword. It's the foundation of how we stay human in an overstimulated world. It’s how we create safety, connection, and clarity in the relationships that matter most.
Overthinking is rarely about insight. It’s about emotional avoidance disguised as analysis. True understanding begins not in your thoughts, but in your willingness to stay with what’s uncomfortable without trying to fix or escape it immediately.
Self-awareness is not a luxury or a personality trait, it’s a psychological infrastructure. Without it, we repeat patterns, misread situations, and lose the ability to act with intention instead of reaction.
Boundaries are not about pushing people away. They’re how we take emotional responsibility for what we can handle, what we value, and how we want to be treated in relationships that actually matter to us.
Emotional maturity isn’t measured by how little we feel. It’s shown in how we carry big emotions without letting them hijack our behavior. It’s the quiet strength of presence, not performance.
You don’t have to erase your past to heal, you just have to stop letting it silently write the present. Healing is a return to authorship over your life, not a denial of what shaped you.
Clarity often feels like calm. Not because everything is perfect, but because you’re no longer performing, pretending, or explaining yourself to people who never learned how to listen with care.
Self-trust is not about always knowing the answer. It’s about knowing you can stay present, even when you don’t. It’s a psychological anchor in a world that rewards dissociation and speed.
When we can name what we’re feeling without shame, we begin to reclaim agency over our inner life. Language is a psychological bridge between experience and understanding; it lets us carry what we used to avoid.
You are not “too much.” You are simply carrying the emotional weight of people who never learned to sit with discomfort, so they handed it to you instead.

Essays

Essays on psychological clarity, emotional regulation, identity, and the conditions that allow people to think, relate, and live with coherence.

Some truths can’t be compressed; they need space to become clear.

The Psychology of Panic: When the Body Sounds a False Alarm

Emotional Posture as a Psychological Framework

The Theater of Threat: How Emotional Immaturity, Spectacle Psychology, and Desensitization Are Undermining Global Sanity

Cruelty as Spectacle: How Emotional Dominance Became the Performance of Our Time

The Outrage Industrial Complex: How Emotion Became a Weapon, a Business, and a Way of Life

Being the Adult in the Room: Emotional Immaturity in an Unhinged World

The Psychology of Resilience

Understanding Social Anxiety and Avoidance

Emotional intelligence isn’t just a workplace skill or buzzword. It's the foundation of how we stay human in an overstimulated world. It’s how we create safety, connection, and clarity in the relationships that matter most.

Overthinking is rarely about insight. It’s about emotional avoidance disguised as analysis. True understanding begins not in your thoughts, but in your willingness to stay with what’s uncomfortable without trying to fix or escape it immediately.

Self-awareness is not a luxury or a personality trait, it’s a psychological infrastructure. Without it, we repeat patterns, misread situations, and lose the ability to act with intention instead of reaction.

Boundaries are not about pushing people away. They’re how we take emotional responsibility for what we can handle, what we value, and how we want to be treated in relationships that actually matter to us.

Emotional maturity isn’t measured by how little we feel. It’s shown in how we carry big emotions without letting them hijack our behavior. It’s the quiet strength of presence, not performance.

You don’t have to erase your past to heal, you just have to stop letting it silently write the present. Healing is a return to authorship over your life, not a denial of what shaped you.

Clarity often feels like calm. Not because everything is perfect, but because you’re no longer performing, pretending, or explaining yourself to people who never learned how to listen with care.

Self-trust is not about always knowing the answer. It’s about knowing you can stay present, even when you don’t. It’s a psychological anchor in a world that rewards dissociation and speed.

When we can name what we’re feeling without shame, we begin to reclaim agency over our inner life. Language is a psychological bridge between experience and understanding; it lets us carry what we used to avoid.

You are not “too much.” You are simply carrying the emotional weight of people who never learned to sit with discomfort, so they handed it to you instead.

Professor RJ Starr

Integrating psychology, culture, and meaning to understand the forces shaping modern life.

Join the Community

Receive new essays, psychological reflections, and podcast updates directly in your inbox — plus a complimentary digital copy of How to Stop Overthinking Everything.