F02 · Anxiety and Worry
Existential anxiety and freedom
Anxiety arising from human freedom, open possibility and the responsibility of self-authorship.
Cues
Showing 3 of 3 cues
“To will to be himself is man’s true vocation ... blockages in self-awareness [occur] because the individual [is] unable to move through accumulations of anxiety at various points in his growth. Kierkegaard makes it clear that selfhood depends upon the individual’s capacity to confront anxiety and move ahead despite it.”
“Freedom in its essence is the acceptance of the chains which suit you and for which you are suited, and of the harness in which you pull towards an end chosen and valued by yourself, and not imposed. It is not, and never can be, the absence of restrictions, obligations or law and of duty.”
Grasping at finiteness
We are attracted to freedom's power but repelled by its demands, so we draw back, deny it and 'grasp at finiteness', living as if our situation were fixed and immune to change. This relieves anxiety at the cost of growth.