Being and Blogging: An Existential Psychotherapy Blog

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed in one.” A sentence so brief, yet so devastating in its simplicity: It lands like a parable, deceptively simple, but dense with meaning. On the surface, it contrasts the time it takes to build something of value with the speed at which destruction can occur. But beneath that contrast lies something deeper, something more human and terrifying: the fragile nature of what we create, the unpredictability of life, and the existential tension of being a time-bound creature trying to build permanence in a world where everything is perishable. We all encounter this tension every day, not in philosophical texts, but in our lived realities of trying to piece together lives of meaning, coherence, and connection under conditions of uncertainty. In therapy, people are not just seeking symptom relief. They’re seeking ground beneath their feet. They are trying to build their version of Rome: a life that stands firm. And even if th...

We live in an age of mirrors. Front-facing cameras, selfies, Zoom calls, Teams meetings, Instagram filters, and our daily lives are saturated with reflections. We no longer encounter mirrors as occasional tools; they are now constant companions, built into our phones, our habits, our culture. We are reflected to ourselves so often that our image has become a performance. To "be seen" has become the closest thing to existing. Visibility is mistaken for vitality. However, this relentless exposure comes at a cost. The more we are seen, the more estranged we become from what we see. We find ourselves alienated not only from others but also from our bodies, faces, and presence. We are not just looking in the mirror; we are becoming the mirror. The Architecture of Shame The modern beauty industry, in its hyper-capitalised form, has built an architecture of shame disguised as empowerment. Marketing slogans tell us we can become anything, so long as it is beautiful, youthful, and pol...

  "We must learn to see policy not only as economy, but as ontology, shaping not just who gets what, but who gets to be."   Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” has arrived, decked out in populist rhetoric and promising tax cuts for hardworking families. Its aesthetic is familiar, chummy, exaggerated, and brashly optimistic. Yet beneath the gloss lies a disturbing truth: this is not simply a piece of fiscal legislation but a continuation of a decades-long project that extracts wealth from the public and people with low incomes and transfers it upward into the hands of a shrinking elite. If the post-2008 era has taught us anything, political economy has become less about "solving problems" and more about  reconfiguring human life to suit the logic of capital . From an existential materialist perspective, we view this bill not merely as an economic intervention but as an ontological act that shapes reality. It defines who matters, what deserves protection, and how huma...