13.2 · Meaning, Mortality & the Absurd
Man’s Search for Meaning
A psychiatrist’s account of the camps, and the argument that meaning is found rather than given, and survives conditions that destroy everything else. Short and permanently altering. Serves my Level 1 work on suffering and death directly.
Deepen
Section titled “Deepen”The Myth of Sisyphus
"Camus’ absurd courage" is in my hierarchy. This is the source. Read the first essay and the final pages; the middle is literary criticism.
When Breath Becomes Air
A neurosurgeon’s memoir of dying at 37. My hierarchy lists "death contemplation" as a practice; this makes it real rather than theoretical.
Reference
Section titled “Reference”Being Mortal
Aging, medicine, and what a good ending actually requires. Practical as well as philosophical — and relevant to my parents, not only to me.
The Denial of Death
Pulitzer winner. How mortality-denial quietly drives ambition, culture and the need to be exceptional. Heavy, and uncomfortably close to "perfect in everything."