I love this remark... Since it is so true - as far as I have observed, what gets people into philosophy is (usually) a misfortune in relationship or some other traumatic experience.
Maybe that's why more men are into philosophy. Because male angst is so different from female - an insecure male is much less likely to get a sexual partner than insecure female.
I think that's probably true of a bunch of "thinking about existence/meaning/etc." occupations. My sense is that biographies in line with those of Van Gogh, Goya, Kafka, Vonnegut, etc. are quite overrepresented among both novelists and painters, for example.
