Bookshelves Can Fuel Prejudice. They Can Also Cure It.
I just finished reading Virginia Woolf’s A Room Of One’s Own; an essay which incisively shows that women’s silence in fiction was down to their social marginalisation; they weren’t allowed the time, resources or the space with which to create masterpieces, and then were judged as creatively inferior on this absence. Upon finishing it, I had a sudden realisation: I noticed that I only had one female author on my bookshelf.
How had I been blind to such a glaring absence for so long? It shocked me, deeply, to realise that I had ignored half the human race’s output for…
When brain fog makes you feel incapable of reading and writing
I have always valued intelligence highly, and pride myself on being articulate. As a result, when depression and the accompanying brain fog descend on me, it takes a toll not just on my ability to think straight but on my self-worth too. In the midst of a depressive episode, I struggle to read a sentence or to extricate meaning from articles; I find it hard to follow film plots and get lost in the middle of conversations; when I try to write articles in a depressive haze, I lose sight of the bigger picture and struggle to build coherent arguments.
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Lessons from a 16th century philosopher’s gap year
In 1571, the French nobleman Michel de Montaigne sold his seat at the Bordeaux parliament, retired from public service and sequestered himself in a circular tower in his family castle, Château de Montaigne. He was 38.
For the next 10 years he occupied this tower on the estate which had a chapel, a bedroom, a study and a library, separated between 3 levels. Montaigne self-isolated here and spent his days reading, meditating and writing. He was living according to his belief that: “The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”
And increase your chances of achieving them
I recently invested in a whiteboard, almost solely for the purpose of setting goals and shouting at myself in Sharpy each morning to do stuff. At first, intoxicated with the idea of having a new whiteboard, I littered it with all sorts of diffuse goals and vague targets: “Get fit by June’’ was one such example, after discovering the pubs would re-open then in the UK and panicking that Summer was not cancelled after all. The tentative “Write a book?” was another.
Suffice to say, neither of these had much effect, but they…
Whether it is for leisure, learning or work
One of the most common pieces of advice authors impart to hopeful writers, second to putting pen to paper daily, is to read voraciously; whilst there are no shortage of people giving writing advice, tips and techniques, very few discuss how to read effectively. I find this strange, and thoroughly believe that we could all do with a little guidance in how to get more out of the books we consume, myself included. …
And how to overcome them
OCD is a common and debilitating anxiety disorder where a person experiences obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours. For roughly 2% of the global population with OCD, everyday tasks can become increasingly difficult, and their disorder can interfere with all aspects of their life, particularly with those aspects most valued by the sufferer.
This article is going to spotlight the struggles that an OCD sufferer might encounter whilst writing, but it should be noted that whilst there are innumerable sub-types of OCD, all these heads belong to the same monster and require the same treatment plan. …
In part, yes
My brother recently found out he has ADHD, and in light of this discovery he started scrolling through symptoms of the disorder and realising that a lot of his personality traits growing up were actually symptoms; doodling, getting galaxy brain, and taking strange and long routes to solve problems to name a few. …
It was the philosophical inspiration for CBT after all
As an OCD sufferer, I am well aware that many, if not all of us, have intrusive thoughts, but that it is our beliefs about these thoughts that make them so debilitating. In short, the OCD sufferer is taught, quite rightly, that they are not what they think. Recently, however, my OCD has started focusing on feelings of anger and rage. These feelings often lead to intrusive thoughts and come on just as suddenly, but I assign far more weight to feelings of anger than I ever do to thoughts of harm.
From someone who is still struggling to do it
We decry cruelty, and then indulge in retail therapy on Amazon whose workers endure appalling conditions. We sit in awe at natural wonders on Attenborough’s documentaries, but continue to drive to work and eat meat every day of the week. What causes this hypocrisy?
In short, we forget that our actions have a global reach, and think parochially whilst the consequences extend beyond borders. Many of us are brilliant at forgetting the consequences of our lifestyles and practice a mob wife mentality; living off of injustice and exploitation, so long as…
The Ultimate Resource For Writers Is Experience
So many young writers want to create a masterpiece before they have lived; they have all the tools to articulate experience, but no experience with which to draw inspiration from, something I realised in myself recently. I was growing deeply frustrated that I was thinking the same thoughts and feeling the same emotions, and yet it should of come as no surprise when I was seeing the same places and doing the same things. I called it writers block, when in reality I simply had nothing with which to draw from as I…
Ross Carver-Carter
Politics graduate and aspiring journalist. Passionate about mental health awareness. Hoarder of odd historical facts.
