The Concept of Anxiety
By: Joshua Flowers
Section 8
Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher most famously known for the "leap of faith" concept. Even though he never wrote this particular phrase down, he did talk about faith as being this leap that one must take. Kierkegaard is also known for writing on other things including the topic of this text, anxiety. Kierkegaard describes anxiety in this way:
"Hence, anxiety is the dizziness of freedom, which emerges when the spirit wants to posit the synthesis and freedom looks down into its own possibility, laying hold of finiteness to support itself. Freedom succumbs to dizziness."
Kierkegaard likens anxiety to dizziness which I think is a profound way to examine this emotion. Anxiety makes situations unclear, it makes certain things blurry, and before you know it, you're stuck in this disorienting state. However, the word that comes after it is just as important; freedom. I agree with Kierkegaard in the idea that anxiety is a result of endless possibilities and outcomes. It is the result of overthinking and assuming the worst may happen. The product of this boundlessness and overthinking is this dizziness, the inability to steadily position ourselves within particular moments in life. Kierkegaard provides this image of a man standing near the edge of a cliff. This man looks down and sees the endless abyss that is below the cliff and immediately becomes afraid to fall. However, the man also experiences anxiety because he realizes that he could choose to voluntarily jump off of the cliff if he wanted to. This is the dizziness of freedom that Kierkergaard is talking about. There are too many things that can happen, and we are free to make a choice.
Another important aspect of Kierkegaard's take on anxiety is the idea of sin. Kierkegaard believes that anxiety deals with and is a result of the concept of sin entering the world. This comes from the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that is discussed in the book of Genesis in the Bible. The idea that because of sin entering the world we now have the freedom to do whatever we please and this creates this emotion we know as anxiety along with other things. Even with all this, Kierkegaard presents some hopeful and encouraging aspects of this concept of anxiety. Kierkegaard believes that gaining control and awareness over one's anxiety is one of the keys to personal growth and unlocking creativity. Kierkegaard writes things such as:
"Learning to know anxiety is an adventure which every man has to affront…He therefore who has learned rightly to be in anxiety has learned the most important thing.”
“Because it is possible to create — creating one’s self, willing to be one’s self… — one has anxiety. One would have no anxiety if there were no possibility whatever.”
“If man were a beast or an angel, he would not be able to be in anxiety. Since he is both be
ast and angel, he can be in anxiety, and the greater the anxiety, the greater the man.”
The way that Kierkegaard presents both sides of anxiety is important because it should leave us with a bit of application steps in our own life. I understand that anxiety can be extremely severe for some people and it is not necessarily as simple as working to get it under control. I want to make sure I remain sensitive to that. However, even if that is you, I believe it is something that does not have to rule your life. We have freedom and it is important for all of us to do our best to make the decision to not jump off of the edge. Do not dive into the endless disorienting abyss that is anxiety. Do your best to tame it and turn it into something good.
Sources: Updated with Links*
https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/06/19/kierkegaard-on-anxiety-and-creativity/
https://academyofideas.com/2018/02/soren-kierkegaard-psychology-anxiety/
Kierkegaard, Søren, and Albert B. Anderson. Kierkegaard's Writings, VIII, Volume 8: Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin. Edited by Reidar Thomte, Princeton University Press, 1980. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24hrfg. Accessed 4 May 2021.
Grand total of Posts: 24
- Replied to a comment for Jan 28
- Responded to questions for Jan 28
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- Responded to questions for Feb 9th
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- Responded to questions for March 2nd
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- Posted Midterm Report Blog Post
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Astute analysis, Joshua. Somewhere between over- and under-thinking must be the cure for "anxiety"... In a practical way, though, SK understood the day-to-day cure is in the peripatetic life. “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”
ReplyDeleteYou've not linked your sources... If you're still looking for something to link to, consider: https://philosophynow.org/issues/115/Is_Kierkegaard_Still_Relevant_Today