This episode is a reflective exploration of men’s inner lives and the common struggles many men carry quietly.

Rather than offering techniques or tools, the episode sits with the lived experience of loneliness, loss of meaning, and the sense that there is no clear way to navigate life. Beginning with a contemplative reflection on time, space, and becoming, it widens the frame beyond individual symptoms and looks toward the cultural and existential conditions shaping men today.

Drawing from existential philosophy and lived clinical experience, the conversation explores freedom, responsibility, and the quiet work of self-authorship—how a way forward can begin to emerge not from external answers, but from sustained contact with one’s inner life.

This episode is part of The Existential Lens, hosted by psychotherapist Evan Kaufman.

For more reflections on therapy, existence, and the human experience, visit https://evankaufman.org

What does it mean to be a self?
In this episode of The Existential Lens, psychotherapist Evan Kaufman explores the evolving nature of identity—how who we are is not a fixed object to uncover, but an ongoing process we enact moment by moment.

Drawing on existential therapy, phenomenology, and enactivist psychology, Evan examines why our sense of self shifts across contexts, why we contain multiple “selves,” and how our identities take shape through relationships, meaning, and lived experience. Listeners are invited to consider the subtle moments in everyday life that open into the deeper mystery of being: a glance at an old photograph, a quiet morning routine, or a surprising feeling of misalignment with the life we’ve built.

This episode is for anyone curious about identity, authenticity, and the inner complexity that brings people into therapy. It speaks to clients, clinicians, and anyone drawn to existential-humanistic perspectives on what it means to live a more honest, grounded, and meaningful life.

Topics explored:

• Identity as a dynamic, living process
• The myth of a “true” fixed self
• Existential anxiety and the freedom to change
• Multiplicity and the many selves we carry
• How relationships shape who we become
• Moments that reveal the mystery of being
• The role of existential-humanistic therapy in identity formation

If you’re interested in existential psychology, depth-oriented therapy, or the inner work of becoming more fully yourself, this episode offers a grounding, reflective space to explore these questions more deeply.

This episode is part of The Existential Lens, hosted by psychotherapist Evan Kaufman.

For more reflections on therapy, existence, and the human experience, visit https://evankaufman.org

In this episode, Evan examines the paradox of free will in therapy—why all psychotherapy assumes that human beings can choose differently, and how that assumption becomes tangled in a culture marked by technological overwhelm, economic constraint, and a growing sense of powerlessness.

Drawing on existential-humanistic therapy, Viktor Frankl’s insights, and critiques of hard determinism such as those raised by Sam Harris, Evan explores how consciousness, context, and capacity shape our ability to change.

Even when freedom feels limited, a fragment of agency remains—and therapy works by widening the inner space where meaningful choice becomes possible.

This episode is part of The Existential Lens, hosted by psychotherapist Evan Kaufman.

For more reflections on therapy, existence, and the human experience, visit https://evankaufman.org