Philip represents the Schopenhauerian ideal of self-sufficiency and emotional detachment. Julius represents the therapeutic belief that we are "relational creatures" who heal through others.
The story follows Julius Hertzfeld, a distinguished psychotherapist who discovers he is dying of cancer. This terminal diagnosis prompts him to reach out to Philip Slate, a former patient he failed to help twenty years earlier. Philip, a misanthropic and cold individual, claims to have cured himself not through therapy, but by immersing himself in the pessimistic philosophy of . Key Themes and Narrative Structure
Ova zbirka eseja je najteža za čitanje, ali i najmoćnija za depresivne i anksiozne. Šopenhauer ne minimizira patnju; on je normalizuje.
