Existential Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom describes Yalom’s psychotherapeutic framework based around acknowledging and dealing with the anxiety caused by the following existential issues: death anxiety, freedom (or lack of it), loneliness (towards others and towards one’s self) and the meaninglessness of existence.

All major religions provide their believers with explanations for all these questions and concerns. For example, with respect to death anxiety, most Christians believe in Heaven, so if a Christian lives a good life then when they die they’ll wake up in Heaven and they’ll remain there for the rest of eternity. These beliefs help those who believe swallow the bitter pill that is the human experience.

Sadly, the rest of us are cursed with the knowledge that when we die, our body will cease to function and we will cease to exist and, given enough time, we and everything we’ve ever done will be forgotten. We, unfortunately, understand that the universe was not built for a purpose, it exists for no particular reason and, perhaps, all our lives we’ve been pawns, being moved around in a game of Chess played by no one in particular.

Understandably, this can be anxiety inducing. In Existential Psychotherapy, Yalom broadly discusses many approaches people have taken to cope with these existential issues and shares them with the reader.

You can easily overcome your anxiety of death by having a near-death experience or being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Knowing that you’re going to die in the near future or that you came very close to, will probably help you make the most of the time you have left.

You can foster deeper connections with others through volunteering and thus create meaning in your life where there was none to begin with.

Or, you can become a fascist (See Will Durant’s On the Meaning of Life) or join some other kind of community of like-minded people, to give yourself a purpose and have a support group for when times get tough.

Also, you can choose (or can you?) to believe that free will exists (even though it probably doesn’t) because believing that free will exists will probably make you happier (delulu is the solulu).

So… Ya. There’s no solving the problem posed by existentialism. One must simply try and find ways of living that help you get through it and hopefully, if you’re lucky, thrive.

Despite not being written for the layman, Yalom’s Existential Psychotherapy was a compelling read if only for the clear explanations on what existentialism is and what people have tried to do to deal with the consequences of it. I’m less enthusiastic about the extremely detailed case studies and the many weird non-scientific claims Yalom makes.

Reading this book will not instantly put you at ease and act as a warm blanket in the cold meaningless world we find ourselves in but Yalom doesn’t claim that it will. Like with many things in life, you get what you put into it.