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The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Oriented Deliberation in View of the Dogmatic Problem of Hereditary Sin
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Themes
Anxiety as a Condition of Freedom
For Søren Kierkegaard, anxiety is an inevitable consequence of humans being part-animal and part-spirit, or “a synthesis of the psychical and the physical” (43) while also having free will and numerous choices. Even before Adam committed the first sin, he had a “knowledge of freedom” and anxiety. Kierkegaard especially attributes Adam’s anxiety to God’s prohibition against eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, since “prohibition awakens in him freedom’s possibility” (44). This is true for every human being who is alive now or has ever lived, since “[a]nxiety is freedom’s possibility” (155). For this reason, Kierkegaard argues for anxiety as a condition of freedom.
For Kierkegaard, this aspect of the human condition does not necessarily mean that freedom or even anxiety are innately bad. Instead, people are “educated” by anxiety and possibility, in a way where they are better equipped to cope with life’s unexpected problems and with “actuality” (156), such as the inevitability of death. Having freedom and the experience of anxiety allow individuals to understand and actualize themselves and comprehend the world around them, since “the content of freedom is truth, and truth makes man free” and “truth is for the particular individual only as he himself produces it in action” (138).
Therefore, a lack of truth and self-understanding leads to what Kierkegaard calls “unfreedom.” Kierkegaard even goes so far as to equate unfreedom with the state of being demonic, writing, “The demonic is unfreedom that wants to close itself off’ (123, emphasis added). At the same time, unfreedom brings along its own kind of anxiety, the anxiety over the good. The other kind of anxiety described by Kierkegaard, the anxiety over evil, at least does lead to repentance, even if this kind of anxiety “to a certain degree […] wants to have the actuality of sin continue” (114) and can only be resolved through faith. By contrast, the demonic or the unfree “is anxiety about the good” (126), seen when an individual shuts themselves off from truth, self-actualization, and “continuity with the rest of human life” (130).
While the unfree and demonic individual overwhelmed with anxiety about the good is seen by Kierkegaard as cutting themselves off, they are not truly experiencing authentic self-awareness. Self-actualization, and thus communication with the good and freedom, can only happen with what Kierkegaard terms earnestness. He writes, “Earnestness in this sense means the personality itself, and only an earnest personality is an actual personality, and only an earnest personality can do anything with earnestness” (149). Anxiety must therefore be confronted and worked through with the aid of faith, not avoided entirely or allowed to become all-consuming.
Anxiety may be a negative emotion, but it is a universal experience and one intertwined with the human experience since Adam and Eve. It can be detrimental, but anxiety can also lead to freedom, in Kierkegaard’s view. Dealing with anxiety is how a person becomes aware of their selves and the world, and it is through this process of gaining self-knowledge that a person finds the truth, and thus achieves genuine freedom.
The Psychological Precondition of Sin
While Kierkegaard insists that psychology has limits on understanding much of the human experience and humanity’s connection to God, he does argue throughout The Concept of Anxiety that psychology can be used to understand sin to an extent. However, Kierkegaard stresses that even psychology cannot resolve sin itself. Kierkegaard says, “If sin is dealt with in psychology, the mood becomes that of persistent observation, like the fearlessness of a secret agent, but not that of the victorious flight of earnestness out of sin” (15). Instead, Kierkegaard focuses on examining the psychological precondition of sin.
As with other topics, Kierkegaard believes that scientific observation and rational arguments can only go so far in comprehending the spiritual aspects of Christianity. It is not that rationalist approaches have absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. Instead, a clear delineation can and should be made between what topics can be approached rationally and what can only be understood through theology and faith. For example, he remarks, “As soon as psychology has finished with anxiety, it is to be delivered to dogmatics” (162)—that is to say, the truths of faith.
Specifically, Kierkegaard sees psychology’s place as understanding the “possibilities of sin” (23). For example, Kierkegaard suggests that psychology might explain the reason Adam chose to rebel against God’s prohibition, or at least why Adam suffered anxiety over his choice. Likewise, for each individual, psychology provides an understanding of the relationship between sexuality and what Kierkegaard calls “sensuousness” (63). Kierkegaard also believes that psychology can explain why anxiety is, he claims, worse for women.
Most importantly, psychology can explain how and why people make certain choices, and how the way they use their freedom may lead them into being good or into sin. Kierkegaard explains, “Psychology comes closest and explains the last approximation, which is freedom’s showing-itself-for-itself in the anxiety of possibility, or in the nothing of possibility, or in the nothing of anxiety” (76-77). Nonetheless, psychology cannot resolve the problem of sin itself, something that Kierkegaard believes only faith can truly accomplish.
Nor can psychology help an individual overcome sin by achieving self-actualization as an individual. This is because, in Kierkegaard’s view, discovering one’s truth as an individual is an entirely internal process that cannot rely on outside knowledge, only one’s personal understanding of the good, eternity, and their own self. It is also a personal and unique confrontation with one’s own anxiety arising from one’s own use of free will. This is ultimately not something within the realm of mental health treatment or even rationality, but belief: “[I]n order that an individual may thus be educated absolutely and infinitely by the possibility, he must be honest toward possibility and have faith” (157). Psychology can therefore help people understand why they sin, but it cannot help people overcome either anxiety or sin.
The Development of the Self
The importance of the authentic self is at the core of Kierkegaard’s entire argument in The Concept of Anxiety. Kierkegaard interprets the Christian doctrine of hereditary sin as suggesting that humanity is a “race” that has a “history” (37) of sin and anxiety dating back to Adam. However, he believes that every individual person experiences anxiety and has their own “quantitative leap” (33) into sin. These are things that everyone experiences as a result of their freedom of choice: “Sin never enters into the world differently and has never entered differently” (50). In emphasizing individuality, Kierkegaard explores the development of the self, especially through earnestness and self-awareness.
Even though each individual is part of the human race, Kierkegaard stresses that “every individual is both himself and the race” (31, emphasis added). Although anxiety and sin are universal to humans, that does not negate the individuality of each person. Rather, Kierkegaard stresses that developing an accurate sense of self is important for understanding the truth of not just one’s internal self, but also one’s humanity and achieving what Kierkegaard regards as freedom.
Although Kierkegaard balks at giving an exact definition of earnestness, it is basically the concept of finding truth through cultivating one’s internal awareness and personality. He describes earnestness this way: “Earnestness […] means the personality itself, and only an earnest personality is an actual personality, and only an earnest personality can do anything with earnestness” (149). It is key for achieving an authentic individual consciousness, which is vitally important for every person for their own well-being and for achieving true belief and faith.
In contrast, failure to achieve such earnestness leads to becoming what Kierkegaard describes as a “demonic” (118). Demonics are individuals who do not achieve the authenticity Kierkegaard finds so desirable, but instead are trapped in what he calls “unfreedom.” Unfreedom does not mean that demonics have no sense of individual self, as they can be reflective individuals and believe they have a sense of self-understanding. However, this is not an authentic understanding, especially if it is an understanding focused more on worldly or finite things rather than on the transcendent reality Kierkegaard calls eternity.
Kierkegaard believes that such worldly self-deception has only become more common in his own times, writing, “The more peaceful and quiet an age is and the more accurately everything follows its regular course, so that the good has its reward, the easier it is for an individual to deceive himself about whether in all his striving he has a beautiful but nevertheless finite goal” (160). Kierkegaard thus reiterates the importance of each individual actively developing him- or herself to seek true faith and a connection with the eternal, instead of existing in a state of passive contentment or an unthinking anxiety.
It is thus impossible to overstate how important an authentic self-awareness as an individual is for Kierkegaard. Not only is it necessary to achieve a healthy psychological and spiritual state, it is also the purpose of human life itself.
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