Irrational Man helped to introduce existentialism to the English-speaking world and has been identified as one of the most useful books that discuss the subject, but Barrett has also been criticized for endorsing irrationality and for giving a distorted and misleading account of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
The book Irrational Man was instrumental in making existentialism accessible to the English-speaking audience and is considered a seminal work on the topic. However, Barrett's endorsement of irrationality and his distorted account of Hegel have been widely criticized.