Bound up

The personality is a braid of conditioned behaviours and memories. It’s why we think, speak and act the same way every day. We assume this triple-named bit of binding is who we are.

What I want

We feel the way we want to feel. Even pain has its attractions.

Fear of feeling

We cannot moderate our emotions if we’re unaware of them—or, worse, if we’re aware of them but hide them to support the dismal fiction of imperviousness, of a man who doesn’t hurt.