The Work · Turning Toward
The Turning Toward Series
A philosophy of mental health, written plainly and carefully. Every piece opens with crisis resources, ahead of the argument.
If you are struggling, you are not alone — and reaching out is a strength, not a weakness. Every line below is free, confidential, and non-denominational. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org
Crisis Text Line — text HOME to 741741
The Trevor Project — for LGBTQ+ young people: call 866-488-7386, or text START to 678678
NAMI Greater Kansas City — free peer support, groups & education · namigreaterkc.org
ReDiscover (Jackson County, MO) — 24/7 crisis line 888-279-8188
Mental Health America of the Heartland — a warm ear when you just need to talk, 4–10 pm daily · 866-927-6327
Johnson County Mental Health Center (KS) — 24/7 crisis line 913-268-0156
This series is philosophy and testimony, not treatment, and never a substitute for a professional who can sit with you.
The Turning Toward series is the philosophy-of-psychology companion to On ——ing — the same attention, turned toward the hard places a life actually moves through.
Where those essays turn a single verb over until it opens onto something larger, these turn toward the mental-health conditions themselves, and ask what philosophy, testimony, and depth psychology can offer them that clinical language alone cannot. It is explicitly philosophical and testimonial, not clinical — a line held with care until the author completes his degree.
Each piece speaks in one or more of three plainly named voices: Experienced, Observed (carried anonymously, with care), and Researched. And each opens with crisis resources, because the subject asks for that kind of responsibility.
The arc begins with the conditions the author moved through and overcame — depression, addiction, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and attention — in the order he overcame them, before turning later to conditions observed rather than lived. Read against Jung and the modern clinical literature, the series carries one quiet thesis: that turning toward what hurts, rather than away from it, is the first key to healing.
The work grows toward a doctoral dissertation in depth psychology. Like everything here, it is offered freely.
The series7 pieces
Turning Toward Mental Health2026-07-04The Hinge Between Lived Experience and Developing the Keys for Growth
Turning Toward the Subconscious2026-07-05Shining a Light Into the Dark, Asking Why, and Learning to Read the Answer
Turning Toward Depression2026-07-06Bringing a Heartfelt Flashlight Into a Room Shaped by the Dark
Turning Toward Addiction2026-07-07Understanding the Desire, Holding the Reality, and Letting Go of the Parts That Don't Belong
Turning Toward Suicidal Thoughts2026-07-06Facing Life's Biggest Demon, Standing Your Ground, and Winning
Turning Toward Anxiety2026-07-08Standing Outside the Shadows, and the Confusion of Things Still Going Wrong
Turning Toward ADHD2026-07-09Removing the Persona, and the Shadow You Can Never Quite Pin Down
The first entries are live; more follow as the series grows — not always in the planned order. Read in any order, once they land.
Banner artwork Martin Johnson Heade, Newburyport Meadows (c. 1876–81), The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain or CC0 — full list in the image credits.