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Patrick M. Whitehead

Existential Health Psychology

Patrick M. Whitehead

Existential Health Psychology The Blind-spot in Healthcare

Patrick M. Whitehead Sociology and Psychology Albany State University Albany, GA, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-21354-1    ISBN 978-3-030-21355-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21355-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Pattern © John Rawsterne/patternhead.com This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To my beautiful wife, Erica

Foreword

It is now fashionable to hear of one existential crisis or another. Seemingly out of nowhere the word existential is now regularly heard from the mouths of news entertainers, pundits, and politicians. One asserted that the planet has an expiration date of 2030, and with no edible food, no potable water, and no breathable air, soon after will follow the end of the existence of that most endangered subspecies of living things: Homo sapiens sapiens. We will no longer exist. Much like the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, only cockroaches will remain. My ears perk up, not because of the doomsday predictions, but because of the surprising resurrection of that word, which I thought had permanently disappeared with the post-World War II era I grew up in, along with avid readers of Walter Kaufmann’s mélange of essays and excerpts from philosophy and literature Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre and quirky plays such as Waiting for Godot or J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, which captured the existential crisis of growing up better even than the ego psychobiographies of the ego psychol