{"id":241151,"date":"2021-04-25T23:48:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T04:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/?p=241151"},"modified":"2026-04-10T23:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T04:49:13","slug":"the-sickness-unto-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/the-sickness-unto-death\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sickness Unto Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A companion piece to The Concept of Anxiety, this work continues S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard\u2019s radical and comprehensive analysis of human nature in a spectrum of possibilities of existence. Present here is a remarkable combination of the insight of the poet and the contemplation of the philosopher.<\/p>\n

In The Sickness unto Death, Kierkegaard moves beyond anxiety on the mental-emotional level to the spiritual level, where\u2009\u2014\u2009in contact with the eternal\u2009\u2014\u2009anxiety becomes despair. Both anxiety and despair reflect the misrelation that arises in the self when the elements of the synthesis\u2009\u2014\u2009the infinite and the finite\u2009\u2014\u2009do not come into proper relation to each other. Despair is a deeper expression for anxiety and is a mark of the eternal, which is intended to penetrate temporal existence.