The Existential Dispatch, Issue No. 43

A Word from the Founding Director

Questions of loneliness, meaning, identity, and uncertainty are already present in clinical encounters, often before anyone names them. This issue moves between Etty Hillesum’s account of two forms of loneliness, current palliative and oncology scholarship, and the practical conditions under which people encounter support. The invitation is to ask what kinds of presence our systems make possible—and whose experiences they recognize.

Existential Thinker of the Issue

Etty Hillesum

“I know two sorts of loneliness. One makes me feel dreadfully unhappy, lost and forlorn, the other makes me feel strong and happy.” — Etty Hillesum, diary entry of 9 August 1941, as quoted in Alexandra Pleshoyano, Etty Hillesum: For God and With God. theway.org.uk

Hillesum’s distinction resists treating all aloneness as deficit: isolation that severs connection differs from solitude experienced as meaningful and connected. Clinically, it invites questions about which relationships, communities, or spaces feel absent or sustaining—without assuming a patient’s faith or prescribing solitude as a cure.

In Academia

Spiritual needs in gynecologic cancer care. A September 12 study in Supportive Care in Cancer examines spiritual needs, spiritual well-being, and related factors among patients with gynecologic cancer. Its focus is a reminder that questions of meaning belong alongside symptom and treatment assessment, with the patient—not a checklist—setting what is relevant. link.springer.com

In Film, Literature and Culture

Storming: Seasons of Care. PBS Independent Lens lists this documentary for November 23; it follows a family providing round-the-clock care for their son, who has been in a coma for a decade. The long duration of care offers a prompt to consider how dependency reshapes family life and how caregivers’ experiences enter public view. pbs.org

In Healthcare (Global)

Spiritual care in oncology settings in Ghana. A September 5 qualitative study listed in Supportive Care in Cancer explores nurses’ experiences providing spiritual care in Ghana. By centring nurses’ accounts, it shifts attention from whether existential needs matter to the conditions that allow those needs to be met across differently situated services. link.springer.com

Funding and Grant Opportunities

2026 Knowledge Mobilization Grants: Mental Health of Older Persons. The University of Calgary’s funding database lists an October 27, 2026 deadline for this Brain Canada opportunity. Projects connecting later-life mental health with meaning, social connection, or care may find a starting point here; confirm eligibility, program scope, and institutional timelines with the official call before planning an application. research.ucalgary.ca

Conferences and Events

PCCongress 2027 abstract call. The call for papers is open through October 16, 2026, and the organizers state there will be no late-breaking call. Palliative-care research on existential distress, caregiver support, or psychosocial oncology could make a timely contribution. pccongress.org.uk

Startup and Innovation Watch

Cigna Group and OpenAI explore AI support in cancer care. An announced September partnership aims to develop tools for patients with complex conditions, beginning with oncology support. The planned tools may bring patient questions, reported side effects, and preferences together with clinical, pharmacy, behavioural-health, and benefits information for care teams; these are proposed capabilities, not demonstrated outcomes. The design question is whether such systems keep each person’s concerns and values visible alongside operational signals. digitalhealthnews.com

To Close: An Existential Joke

Why did the existentialist turn off the GPS? It was very certain about where to go.