Today Margaret and I take on our own freedom in today’s episode, which is part 2 of a 4-part series on Existential Psychotherapy. The existential postulate that we are all ultimately free to make our own decisions (and therefore must live with those decisions) can be a source of distress but also a path to the pursuit of a meaningful life - it all comes down to how you go about it. And we will chat about it all, freely.
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Produced by Dr Glaucomflecken & Human Content
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Chapters:
00:00 Beast Mode Therapy & Cold Open Banter
00:30 Welcome to How to Be Patient: Existential Psychotherapy Series Setup
01:48 Icebreaker: Crossroads & Burnout (Moonlighting Decision)
06:28 Preston’s Crossroads: Choosing a Fellowship & Life Tradeoffs
08:56 Existential Freedom 101: The Four Ultimate Concerns
09:54 Do We Really Have Free Will? Determinism, Limits, and Theology Takes
13:33 Compassion vs. Nihilism: When ‘It’s Not Your Fault’ Backfires
18:58 Freedom → Decisions → Responsibility: Why We Avoid Owning Choices
20:15 Compulsions & the ‘Innocent Victim’: Two Styles of Responsibility Avoidance
24:18 Beast Mode Revisited: Outsourcing Responsibility to Therapists (and TikTok)
27:47 Agency Without Shame: Uncertainty, Theodicy, and Owning What You Can’t Know
30:32 Other People Are Free Too: Boundaries, Ownership, and a Snorkeling Metaphor Tease
31:45 Serenity Is in the Eye of the Snorkeler: Owning Your Perception
33:04 You’re Still Responsible: Anger, ‘Beast Mode,’ and the Adversity Coefficient
35:55 Courage Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All: The Foxhole Joke & What Therapists Can’t Know
38:16 Misplaced Responsibility = Distress: The ‘Responsibility Problem’ Explained
39:19 Tokyo Subway Snowboard Meltdown: Reclaiming Agency in Real Time
43:10 Sorting the Buckets: Parents, Serenity Prayer, and What You Can Actually Control
45:32 Existential Guilt & Optimization Culture: The Pain of ‘I Could Be More’
47:15 The Antidote Is a Wish: Directionality, Meaning, and Decision Paralysis
51:54 Fig Tree vs Bell Pepper: TikTok Case Studies on Not Choosing
55:19 Therapy Micro-Skills for Agency: Swapping ‘I Can’t’ for ‘I Choose’
01:00:18 Hidden Payoffs: Why ‘Self-Sabotage’ Usually Serves a Purpose
01:02:53 Patreon Tease (Gestalt/Fritz Perls) + Wrap-Up, Credits, and Lilac the Cat
