The Existential Dispatch, Issue No. 48

A Word from the Founding Director

This issue keeps returning to the question of presence. Two new papers on meaning-centred psychotherapy, a film about an actor who played Hamlet while dying, and new Canadian attention to violence against healthcare workers each ask what it takes to stay present when illness reorganises a life. My hope is that we read them as questions about the conditions of care as much as about its techniques.

Existential Thinker of the Issue

Leo Tolstoy

“Ivan Ilych’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” — Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych, chapter II, trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude (ccel.org)

Tolstoy’s novella remains one of medicine’s most honest teaching texts. Ivan Ilych suffers from his illness, and he suffers as much from the evasions around him: doctors who speak only of organs, a family that cannot name what is happening. The one person who comforts him is the servant Gerasim, who acknowledges plainly that everyone dies. For clinicians, the lesson is that truthfulness offered with tenderness can itself be a form of care.

In Academia

Meaning-centred psychotherapy for existential distress and demoralisation. A narrative review by Pappa and Antoniadis in Omega: Journal of Death and Dying (September 13) synthesises controlled studies of meaning-centred psychotherapy in advanced cancer, finding consistent gains in meaning and spiritual well-being and more modest effects on depression and anxiety. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A culturally informed case from Vietnam. A case report in Palliative & Supportive Care (published online September 25) describes meaning-centred psychotherapy with a young woman with advanced cancer near the end of life, and attends carefully to how family, culture, and relational reconnection shaped the work. cambridge.org

In Film, Literature and Culture

Elsinore. Simon Stone’s film, reviewed by Radio Times on October 9, follows the actor Ian Charleson as he takes on Hamlet at the National Theatre in 1989 while living with AIDS, weeks before his death. Andrew Scott plays Charleson; the UK release is set for January 29, 2027. It is a portrait of a queer artist choosing how to meet his own finitude. radiotimes.com

In Healthcare (Global)

Sexual and gender minority care as an oncologic imperative. CancerNetwork (October 6) reports Charles Kamen’s argument that minority stress drives preventable disparities across the cancer continuum, and that safe, routine collection of sexual orientation and gender identity data is the most actionable first step, including for recognising partners and chosen family. cancernetwork.com

Violence is not part of the job. Writing in Hospital News (September 30), HealthCareCAN supports Bill S-233, which would require Canadian courts to treat assaults on people providing health or personal care as an aggravating factor at sentencing. One member organisation recorded 837 workplace-violence incidents in 2025 to 2026. Law can mark the boundary; mutual respect still has to be practised on every unit. hospitalnews.com

Funding and Grant Opportunities

Canadian Cancer Society Awards for Excellence in Cancer Research. CCS lists these awards with a deadline of December 2, 2026 at 5:00 pm EST; its funding page also notes that psychosocial, palliative, and end-of-life research sits within its Prevention and Supportive Care category. cancer.ca

Conferences and Events

LGBTIQA+ Cancer Care Education Series (ASHM, online). An eight-part webinar series for health professionals runs from October 6, 2026 to June 1, 2027 at 6:30 pm AEDT, covering the cancer journey from prevention and diagnosis through survivorship and supportive care for LGBTIQA+ communities. ashm.org.au

Startup and Innovation Watch

LumenUs. TechCrunch (October 9) profiles a grief-care platform that organises the administrative tasks after a death by urgency, so families can see what must be done now and what can wait. It is presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt this week and opens early access in October. Lightening paperwork can leave more room for mourning itself. techcrunch.com

To Close: An Existential Joke

An existentialist went to his physician for a second opinion. “You are going to die,” said the doctor. “Eventually.” “That is the first opinion,” he sighed. “I was hoping for a second one.”