Field Notes in Existential Psychology
Reflections on meaning, uncertainty, and what we do when life refuses to explain itself.
Field Notes in Existential Psychology is a space for serious reflection on meaning, mortality, freedom, and the human mind.
What lives here isn’t always a firm answer—it’s an unfolding. Observations, tensions, and recurring questions about what it means to be human in a world that doesn’t explain itself. Written with a psychological lens and a philosophical ear, these entries follow the thread wherever it leads.
The Silent Witness: Consciousness, Isolation, and the Unshareable Self
No one will ever fully know what it’s like to be you. This essay explores the existential tension between our deep desire to be understood and the reality that consciousness is inherently private. Drawing from philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, Professor RJ Starr examines what it means to live inside a mind that cannot be shared.
The Weight of Choice: On Freedom, Anxiety, and the Pressure to Get It Right
We often celebrate freedom as the ultimate good—but for many, it feels more like a burden. In this existential exploration, Professor RJ Starr examines why choice creates anxiety, how modern psychology and neuroscience explain our paralysis, and what it really means to live responsibly when no one else can choose for you.
On the Beautiful Absurd: A Lecture on Meaning, Mind, and the Joke We Can’t Escape
We search for meaning in a world that offers none; and yet, we keep searching. Through the lenses of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, this reflection explores the strange dignity of living with open eyes in an indifferent universe. Meaning may be constructed, but our response to the absurd is deeply human.