This article was originally published in Merion West.
“Regulating your own emotions is something most people are capable of doing…It doesn’t require you constantly expressing [a problem], thinking about it, [and] sharing it with everyone…There’s something about not fixating too much on your own problems and really dwelling on them but, instead, doing something.”
On June 20th, existential psychologist Clay Routledge joined Merion West editor-in-chief emeritus Erich Prince to discuss his latest work, particularly since leaving his academic post at North Dakota State University last year. Now serving as Vice President and Director of the Human Flourishing Lab at Archbridge Institute and co-editor of the online magazine Profectus, Dr. Routledge is continuing his research into topics such as nostalgia, humans’ views of the supernatural, and how people generally relate to questions of meaning. He writes frequently, including at Merion West, and recently published an op-ed at The Wall Street Journal on how exclusively fixating on questions pertaining to mental health can actually be detrimental to individual happiness. A staunch defender of free enterprise and an advocate for appreciating human advancement, Dr. Routledge also writes on how to encourage more Americans, particularly of the younger variety, to be more optimistic about the future of the United States. In this conversation, Dr. Routledge and Mr. Prince discuss topics from helpful lifestyle and attitude adjustments to handling anxiety to Ernest Becker’s 1973 book The Denial of Death to the differences between working at a think tank versus a university.
