ABSTRACT
In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott suggests breaking writing projects down into small tasks the size of a ‘one-inch picture frame’. To not do so, she says, risks ‘your mental illnesses arriv[ing] at the desk like your sickest, most secretive relatives’ (p. 16).
In this chapter I riff on Lamott’s advice and turn around to confront the various ‘mental illnesses’ that have arrived at my desk since I became an academic: ontological insecurity, imposter syndrome and reversion to childhood coping strategies. In facing these ‘mental illnesses’ I also reflect on my capacity to grow beyond them, to develop academic resilience and increased agency.
