Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
The Terrible Paradox of Self-Awareness : How Awareness Is the Beginning and End of Suffering - Robert Pantano

The Terrible Paradox of Self-Awareness

How Awareness Is the Beginning and End of Suffering

By: Robert Pantano

Paperback | 14 April 2026

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $6.25 with

In Stock and Ships next day
From the author of The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence comes a moving, accessible, and ultimately hopeful series of meditations on the gifts and burdens of self-awareness.

Whether we realize it or not, all of us experience the pain of self-awareness. In an age when we are aware of so much—about ourselves and the world—this pain can be overwhelming. But the same awareness that causes us pain also opens the door to beauty and wonder. This is the paradox of self-awareness.

In a series of poignant aphorisms and short essays, Robert Pantano offers nuanced approaches to confronting, understanding, and living within this paradox. Rather than pretending to provide certainty or easy answers, this thought-provoking collection offers ideas and space for reflection—for living well and finding comfort and peace without clear solutions.

Focusing on major issues of today such as personal alienation, nihilism, the futility of progress, and the malleability of truth, as well as on timeless struggles such as desire, anxiety, aging, and death, this work explores powerful philosophical and psychological ideas in an impressively succinct and memorable way.

About the Author

Robert Pantano is the founder and writer behind the popular philosophy and self-development YouTube channel, "Pursuit of Wonder." He is the author of several self-published books, including The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence and The Art of Living an Absurd Existence.

More in Popular Psychology

Make Believe : On Telling Stories to Children - Mac Barnett

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
I Wrote My Own Eulogy : The art of appreciating your own life - Bradley Dryburgh
Now What? : You, Your Life and the Truth You've Been Avoiding - Gary John Bishop
Things I Told My Notes App : Secret Diary of an Oversharer - Milly Goldsmith
The Courage to be Ordinary - Ichiro Kishimi

RRP $36.99

$26.99

27%
OFF
How To Try Again : The No-Guilt Guide to Making Changes That Stick - Steve Kamb
The Prosperous Heart : Creating a Life of Enough - Julia Cameron

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
Beginning to Live : The Art of Existential Freedom - Emmy van Deurzen
Shift : How to Manage Your Emotions so They Don't Manage You - Ethan Kross
How Lucky Am I : A Skeleton's Guide to Living Your Best Life - Christian Watson
Revealing : The Surprising Power of Oversharing - Leslie John

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Being : Why it's harder to be human than a hamster or a herring - Rachel E. Menzies
We Should All be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie