Dealing with Anxiety

In the Catholic Peace Weekly's 'Philosophy Talk' column, a Jesuit professor offers readers some help understanding anxiety in their lives. 

Modern society is called an ‘anxiety society’ because people feel anxious for various reasons. In "The Malaise of Modernity", Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor (1931~) argues that anxiety is caused by the ills of modern society: ‘rampant individualism’, ‘dominance of instrumental reason’, and ‘loss of freedom’. 

German philosopher Han Byung-chul (1959~) also characterizes modern society as filled with anxiety in 'The Burnout Society' and argues that its fundamental cause is ‘loss of hope’. Psychoanalysis and psychology diagnose the anxiety symptoms felt by modern people as a pathological phenomenon of humans and a disease that must be treated.

Is anxiety really a disease that must be unconditionally eliminated from life? According to philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883~1969), who was a psychiatrist and psychopathologist, anxiety is a very painful emotional feeling that frequently appears in humans. Still, it cannot be resolved by removing particular objects. Rather, it is a fundamental condition of human existence that cannot be avoided. 

Regarding this existential anxiety, the philosopher who had a deep insight on the subject before Jaspers was Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). In “The Concept of Anxiety,” he says that anxiety is “an expression of the perfection of human nature.” According to Kierkegaard, unlike “fear,” which has an object-oriented characteristic, anxiety has the characteristic of “indeterminacy,” which has no object. This means that anxiety cannot disappear by finding its cause and eliminating it. Anxiety is based on the freedom of the human spirit and a chance for humans to acquire a reason for their own existence. If we try to avoid this anxiety, it may even harm us.

To become our true selves, we need to decide freely.  Still, humans facing infinite freedom cannot help but feel dizzy, and Kierkegaard called the “dizziness felt in front of freedom” “anxiety”. Imagine how anxious we would be when we stand alone and responsible in the face of the pure possibility of unpredictable infinite freedom! Paradoxically, the more limitless the possibilities of choice are in the face of uncertainty, the more difficult it becomes to decide. It is as if we are standing before ‘nothingness’ as pure possibility. The moment we decide on something is also the moment when all possibilities disappear. Therefore, not turning away from anxiety but facing it directly means courageously standing in front of the pure possibility of freedom and facing it.

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) defines anxiety as the ‘situational nature’ of human existence. As long as humans exist in the world, they are fundamentally caught up in an atmosphere of anxiety, and they can never avoid it. Anxiety is clearly revealed in death, which absolutely and finally nullifies all possibilities of its existence.

However, the important thing is that without being conscious of anxiety, we not only do not ask about the meaning of our own existence, but we also do not make efforts to advance toward our possibilities in life. As anxiety is an opportunity to find our original self, we need to learn how to live with anxiety rather than reject it.