Kierkegaard The Sickness Unto Death Analysis

“The biggest danger,” wrote the 19th century Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, “that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. is bound to be noticed.” (The Sickness Unto Death) As a philosopher Kierkegaard was extremely interested with ideas such as freedom, anxiety, despair, and what it means to live as a genuine human being. His thoughts on these topics were of great interest to the 20th century existentialists, such as Heidegger, which is why he is now often referred to as the 'Father of Existentialism'. According to Kierkegaard human beings are a synthesis of opposites. One of these pairs of opposites he called the infinite and the finite,

It requires a recognition that innumerable possibilities lye before one, but that one must choose a definite course of action appropriate to the self which one truly is. This requires vigilance, constant effort, and much courage, for finding oneself is the greatest challenge there is. “...to have a self, to be a self, is the greatest concession made to man, but at the same time it eternity's demand upon him.” (The Sickness Unto Death). The weight of this greatest of all tasks brings about anxiety. There are no manuals which guide one in the process of becoming a self, and no external standards of success. On the path of selfhood one must “walk without meeting one single traveler.” (Fear and Trembling) The individual is left alone in this balancing act of human existence, and a dizziness and disorientation rises up, as he stares into the abyss of possibilities which confront him. “Anxiety may be compared with dizziness. He whose eye happens to look down into the yawning abyss becomes dizzy, But what is the reason for this? It is just as much in his own eyes as in the abyss... anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” (The Concept of

“... I will say that this is an adventure that every human being must go through- to learn to be anxious... Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate.” (The Concept of Anxiety). Anxiety is a response to the awareness of one's freedom, of one's power to gaze into the daunting abyss of possibilities and through an act of choice actualize one of those potentialities. It is a response to the recognition that one is ultimately responsible for oneself and for one's future. This awesome sense of freedom and responsibility is recognized as simultaneously attractive and repulsive, an ambivalence Kierkegaard called dread. “In dread there is the egoistic infinity of possibility, which does not tempt like a definite choice, but alarms and fascinates with its sweet anxiety” (The Concept of Dread) Lacking the strength and courage to endure the continual anxiety required to walk the path of selfhood, most strive to relieve their anxiety by choosing, on some level of awareness, not to be a self. Such a choice plummets one into a state of despair, a “Sickness of Spirit”, characterized by the attempt to rid oneself of oneself, and thus do away with the responsibility of being a self. “To despair over oneself, in despair to will to be rid of oneself- this is the formula for all despair.”