Dispatches · Issue 19 · Newsletter ·
The Existential Dispatch, Issue No. 19
This week’s dispatch asks what it means to treat access as more than availability. Thinker of the issue: Martha Nussbaum.
A Word from the Founding Director
This week’s dispatch asks what it means to treat access as more than availability. A global survey of psychosocial oncology finds that patients value this care intensely while many still cannot reach it; a virtual academy shows one practical way to widen the workforce. Across cancer policy, cinema, and precision medicine, the existential question keeps returning: who is enabled to live, choose, and belong within the systems we build?
Existential Thinker of the Issue
Martha Nussbaum
“Capabilities, not functionings, are the appropriate political goals, because room is thereby left for the exercise of human freedom.” — Martha Nussbaum, cited in Health and capabilities: a conceptual clarification (Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy) pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Clinically, this distinction keeps us from confusing a service delivered with a life made more possible. The question is not only whether a patient complied, improved, or completed a pathway, but whether care expanded the person’s real room to think, relate, decide, grieve, and hope.
In Academia
The global cancer mental health survey (EClinicalMedicine, July 9) gathered patient and provider perspectives across 16 and 38 countries. Although 85% of patients rated psychosocial oncology highly important, 63.5% reported receiving none; workforce shortages and missing training were major barriers. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The American Psychosocial Oncology Society’s 15-session Virtual Academy, reported July 24, has trained more than 147 behavioral-health professionals and is being developed further to reach mental-health shortage areas. It is a modest but concrete example of access-building through education. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
In Film, Literature and Culture
Cannes 2026 was read through “existential angst” expressed less as philosophical declaration than as fragile relationships, personal crises, and indirect political pressures. Cristian Mungiu’s Romanian film Fjord took the Palme d’Or, suggesting that contemporary cinema is locating the big questions in intimate bonds. deccanherald.com
In Healthcare (Global)
WHO’s Global status report on cancer 2026 (July 8) follows the whole continuum—from prevention and early detection through treatment, palliative care, and survivorship—and stresses that scientific progress is still distributed unequally. Its call is for universal health coverage, people-centred systems, better monitoring, and meaningful engagement with affected communities. who.int
Funding and Grant Opportunities
ISSEP Research Grants: up to USD $3,000 per project for research in existential psychology, including meaning, mortality, freedom, identity, and shared reality. Applicants must be members, obtain IRB approval before data collection, and submit one PDF by email. Deadline: November 15 (annual cycle; confirm the current call details before submitting). issep.org
Conferences and Events
MD Anderson’s 29th Supportive and Palliative Care Clinical and Research Symposium runs virtually September 18–19, with sessions on end-of-life communication, moral and ethical challenges, symptom management, and patient-centred well-being. Advanced registration deadline: August 16, 2026. mdanderson.cloud-cme.com
The XIII International Conference on “Existential Dimension in Counselling and Psychotherapy” meets in Birštonas, Lithuania, September 14–16, preceded by a September 11–13 seminar. Russian and English are the working languages; at-registration fees are listed on the event page. existentialtherapy.eu
Startup and Innovation Watch
CORE Biomedicine announced a $21 million Series A on July 28 to develop lineage-based precision-oncology therapeutics. The scientific bet is on cancer-cell identity; the existential test is whether precision becomes a route to more humane, more equitable choices—or simply a finer way to ration them. finance.yahoo.com
To Close: An Existential Joke
An existentialist walks into a clinic. The receptionist asks, “Do you have an appointment?”
“I have no appointment,” they say, “but I am here, and I am choosing to be here.”
The receptionist sighs: “Fine. Take a seat. We’ll call you when your freedom is ready.”