Essays

Essays examining psychological clarity, emotional regulation, identity, and the conditions that allow coherent thought and action.

About this series

This series consists of long-form psychological essays focused on understanding how attention, emotion, identity, and meaning function under modern conditions. These pieces are analytic rather than reactive, and explanatory rather than persuasive. They are written to clarify underlying psychological structures, not to comment on current events or offer personal guidance. The emphasis is on coherence: how inner life organizes itself, where it breaks down, and what allows it to stabilize again.

Identity RJ Starr Identity RJ Starr

What Grief Becomes: Holding Loss Without Becoming It

In the aftermath of losing his mother, RJ Starr examines how grief changes shape once it becomes visible. Moving beyond sentiment and performance, this essay explores the difference between rupture and identity, and the quiet work of integrating loss without allowing it to become the organizing center of the self. A reflection on dignity, visibility, and the architecture of mourning.

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