About
the Author of
Our
Existential Predicament:
Loneliness,
Depression, Anxiety, & Death
James Park is an independent existential philosopher
in the tradition of Søren Kierkegaard.
Our Existential Predicament is his major work.
Other books deal with loving relationships and Authentic Existence.
For a complete listing of his other works (including some in progress),
look inside the back cover of this book.
His website—An Existential Philosopher's
Museum—
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/ has over 800 'rooms'.
The seven doors of his museum illustrate his major interests:
1. Love, 2. Sexology, 3. Existentialism, 4. Unitarian
Universalism,
5. Existential Spirituality, 6. Medical Ethics, & 7.
Death.
Each area includes several book reviews.
To find his website, search the Internet for "James Leonard Park".
About
Our Existential Predicament
This book is the product of more than 35 years of
writing and revision.
Most of the current chapters first appeared in a series of small books
called The Existential Freedom Series.
They were used over a period of several years as texts for discussions,
thereby encouraging several revisions.
The concept "our Existential Predicament" is a
reformulation
of a phenomenon (or perhaps several related phenomena)
that has been known to human beings since the dawn of consciousness.
In the earliest phases of human thinking,
this Malaise or Dilemma was usually expressed in mythological form.
But later philosophy and psychology attempted to explain our Malaise
using various philosophical and psychological models.
This book is an existential or phenomenological approach to our Dilemma.
The Introduction prepares us for becoming aware of
our Malaise.
As we honor our sensitivity and subjectivity,
we will open ourselves for disclosures of deep experiences
that are seldom discussed in psychology and philosophy.
The core of the book allows us to enter the inward
exploration
thru any of eleven different doors—the basic chapters of the book.
Which chapter speaks most deeply to your being? Depression?
Anxiety?
Would it be helpful to expand your understanding by viewing
the same Malaise from a different perspective in another chapter?
Since each chapter is complete in itself, they can be read in any order.
Once we profoundly know our Dilemma or Malaise,
we will naturally seek ways to resolve our Existential Predicament.
The Afterword explores obstacles on the way to Existential Freedom.
Created
April 25, 2008; Revised