Living for yourself and others

There is only one truly serious philosophical problem, wrote Albert Camus: whether life is worth living. Most people avoid that question. Gilbert Voortmans does not — not anymore, not after a burnout, a hospitalization, and a diagnosis forced him to face it.

Living for Yourself and for Others is the personal account of that search. As a chemist, Voortmans isn't looking for comfort, but for understanding — and he finds it among an unusual set of guides: quantum physicist Amit Goswami, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, philosopher Albert Camus, therapist Bert Hellinger, Eckhart Tolle, and psychologist Lisa Miller, whose brain research builds a surprising bridge between suffering and spiritual awakening.

What these voices, each from their own discipline, turn out to share forms the heart of this book: you live for yourself — authentically, true to your own nature, in the here and now — and for others: for those who came before you, and for those who will come after.

No universal truth, no ready-made answer. Just an honest, lived-through book for anyone who has ever lain awake in the middle of the night asking: what am I actually doing this for?