Why Read Existentialism?
We’ve started an Existentialist Book Club. Welcome! This article will explain my connection to existentialism and what we hope to do, here.
When I broached the concept of the Existentialist Book Club to a friend of mine from grad school, she was very excited. My initial thought was that I’d defer to her expertise and let her lead the way — her full title is Existential Phenomenological Psychotherapist Victoria Wantuck, M.A., LMHCA, and it seems to have worked out great. Victoria really knows the lay of the land here, and she’s picked the books. Also, she’s held me to my commitments to do the readings, and that hasn’t been easy because I’ve been overcommitted to a fault, here lately.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what Victoria decides to write. We went to school together for awhile, and we’ve talked about doing projects such as this one in the past, but she’s actually right up in the midst of existentialism as a practice. I would say I’m there too, to some extent, but her work at the moment involves using these ideas to directly improve people’s ability to cope with difficult situations in life. I respect that, and I await her writings with great anticipation as a result. I’m happy to announce that our first book is Existentialism is a Humanism, by Jean-Paul Sartre. It’s a short…
