The Illyrian

Have You No Shame We've lost shame. (Shame, come back.) I have read this so many times that it almost seems pointless to write it again: every generation commenting on how much harder they had it than the generation before them. However, there is something distinct to be said for the people who came of age after 1995 - perhaps even a few years later. These are the folks who have grown up fully immersed in computers, smartphones, the internet, and social media. I think this captures the shift. We see easy access to information and the ability to cast a wide social net at the expense of authentic connection—the "right-brain to right-brain" resonance described by Allan Schore. We have transitioned from an "imaginary audience" to a very real, yet totally unreal, cyber-audience of constant judgment. The cogent point is the tension between instant gratification and its essential bedfellow: delayed gratification. We can also call this impulse control—reactions versus ...

Judgment as Inheritance I have a judgmental mind. Even after years of therapy, self-reflection, and careful observation, I can’t seem to shake it. Judgment arrives quickly and reflexively, often before I have a chance to choose something kinder. I recently came across the idea that judgment is insecurity disguised, and it landed with uncomfortable accuracy. Jung’s observation touches the same nerve: “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves” (Carl Jung, Collected Works , Vol. 10, Civilization in Transition , §247). A small example: I send a message to a longtime friend. Time passes. My mind immediately fills in the blank — they’re probably being lazy or distracted. But that inference isn’t neutral. It carries a moral edge: disorganization, lack of discipline, a quiet devaluation. The alternative thought — good for them, perhaps they need rest or time for themselves — comes later, if at all. Judgment is my default orientation. This reflex do...

The Philosophy of Supervision Supervision in psychotherapy is both an art and a science. As I reflect on my personal philosophy of supervision, I find myself continually moving between structure and intuition, left-brain clarity and right-brain attunement, technique and presence. This oscillation mirrors the tension inherent in psychotherapy itself. I am especially influenced by Allan Schore’s The Science of the Art of Psychotherapy (2012), which emphasizes the primacy of right-brain-to-right-brain communication in emotional attunement, co-regulation, and implicit learning. Just as Schore integrates neuroscience with lived relational experience, my own philosophy of supervision integrates the theoretical, developmental, ethical, and interpersonal dimensions that make supervisory work both grounded and alive. A significant early insight emerged from a seminar with Danny Seto (2025), who emphasized that competent therapists do not automatically become competent supervisors. This princip...

Krupitcka, Culture, and the Myth We Build: A Personal Critique and Reconciliation I’ll admit something up front: when I first got into running, I drank the Krupicka Kool-Aid. Hard. The mystique, the aesthetic, the shirtless mountain monk routine — it all pulled me in like it has so many others. But over time, I started hearing people toss around words like phenom , icon , even legend — and I felt myself recoil. I listened to his interviews and found a tone that bordered on self-mythologizing. The long, adjective-heavy sentences. The quasi-philosophical musings. The fan base lapping it up. I still liked him, but part of me started to see him as… well, a bit of a wanker. And honestly, what had he done ? He won a couple of big races, sure, but you don’t put him in the same athletic universe as Jurek, Kilian, or even Walmsley. Of that group, only Jurek is close to earning the “legend” designation in my books. And then there’s the lifestyle. I worked at Outward Bound; I’ve seen it up...