What is the formula for all despair?

If one might die of despair as one dies of a sickness, then the eternal in him, the self, must be capable of dying in the same sense that the body dies of sickness. This is the potentiated formula for despair, the rising of the fever in the sickness of the self. A despairing man is in despair over something.

What does Kierkegaard mean by despair?

To Kierkegaard, despair is not a suffering of the self, but is a misrelation in the self itself and, therefore, goes to the very core of an individual’s existence.

What does Kierkegaard recommend as the solution to despair?

As early as Part I.A.a., Kierkegaard indicated that the solution to despair would involve establishing a relationship with the “power” that established the individual human being–in other words, with God.

What is the formula for escaping despair according to Kierkegaard?

Kierkegaard writes, “to despair over oneself, in despair to will to be rid of oneself – this is the formula for all despair” (SUD 20).

What are different types of despair?

There are three kinds of despair presented in the book: being unconscious in despair of having a self, not wanting in despair to be oneself, and wanting in despair to be oneself.

What is the difference between despair and depression in the sickness unto death?

Despair doesn’t affect a person, it affects a self. Kierkegaard’s self is similar to the common concept of the soul. Depression and unhappiness affect a person, but despair affects the self because despair is a spiritual sickness.

What does Kierkegaard say about death?

For instance, in the 1845 discourse “At a Graveside,” after dismissing as a “jest” the argument made by Epicurus that death is “nothing to us” due to the fact that we will not experience our own non-being, Kierkegaard “does not reject this argument by appealing to Christian teachings” about personal immortality, but …

What is difference between anxiety and despair?

Rather, anxiety is the mark of human freedom and the condition for the possibility of despair. Despair is the wrongful use of freedom through the failure to choose to be oneself.

Where does despair come from?

Despair is from Latin desperare “to be without hope,” from the prefix de- “without” plus sperare “to hope,” from spes “hope.”

Why is Kierkegaard important to despair?

He comes to the conclusion that it is both. Despair is a type of suffering, so it must be bad. However, despair is a direct result of self-awareness, and increased self-awareness actually makes the self stronger. The stronger one’s self, the closer one is to God.

What is self Kierkegaard?

Kierkegaard argues that one can only be oneself if the individual recognizes that the self is given by something other than itself. The fundamental structure of the self is a self-relationship with a fundamental structure of the being-in-oneself-in-another (Habermas, 1992, 1995).

Does despair lead to depression?

Despair may come and go. Some days are good and generally an outing or event may lift despair temporarily, but in most cases, and without intervention, it returns and can quickly lead to depression. Depression and despair are crippling disorders that no individual should suffer.