Existentialism and the Search for the Lost Swiffer
by Iason Venetsanopoulos, Psyxotherapist
One might be surprised at how existential concerns, which seem to belong solely to the realm of philosophy, meet us in the most everyday things.
Drawing from a moment in my sessions, I will highlight the "where" and "how" we encounter and negotiate existential issues in our daily lives.
Existential psychotherapy deals with four core themes: death, freedom, loneliness, and the absence of meaning. The existential psychotherapist asserts that these four fundamental issues underpin all mental, intellectual, and emotional tension.
“It’s not that I couldn’t do my work without the Swiffer. I could find many solutions. But the idea that I can’t find the Swiffer now that I need it drives me crazy. I saw it yesterday, where did it go today? WHERE HAS MY SWIFFER GONE?”
How interesting it is that the issue wasn’t the Swiffer itself. What was unbearable was that suddenly the Swiffer ceased to exist. It was there yesterday, and today it’s not. Suddenly, something you take for granted in your life is lost.
And instantly and strikingly, your sense of self connects with everything else you might have lost in your life. “I’ve lost my youth, I’ve lost my free time” (assuming they are forty and have just had their second child). “I’ve lost my freedom. I’ve lost all the other lives I might have had if I hadn’t chosen the one I have.” Don’t get me wrong; this doesn’t mean I don’t like my life. I would choose it again. This doesn’t negate the loss. I’ve lost a friend, I’ve lost my childhood, I’ve lost 40 years of the years I will live. And all these losses I have accepted, I have endured. BUT NOT THE SWIFFER!!!! How can I endure continuing to live, enduring the harshness of life if I can’t rely on some things staying constant? I’m not asking for much; at least let that damned Swiffer be in its place, and I can handle the rest.”
Suddenly, this simple and insignificant little duster takes on an incomprehensibly significant symbolic dimension as it becomes the anchor of stability in a constantly changing and chaotic universe.
Existentialism, with this awareness, confronts you with the grandeur and richness you can encounter in the simplest and most everyday moments. Especially in automatic unconscious actions, as this is where the entire mechanism we have set up (each person’s own) to cope with the unimaginably overwhelming truths, such as death, freedom, the absence of meaning, and loneliness, emerges.
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