Rollo May — Quote from The Meaning of Anxiety
“Anxiety is not something we have but something we are. It is our state of being in a world we never made and one which, by its nature, is always threatening.”
The Meaning of Anxiety (1950)
Concepts: freedom, authenticity, alienation
Resonant Quotes
- “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” — Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety May's existential expansion of Kierkegaard's metaphor transforms anxiety from a psychological state into an ontologic...
- “We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are — that...” — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness Both existential psychologist and philosopher identify the vertigo-inducing weight of radical freedom and responsibil...
- “The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the ver...” — Erich Fromm, Man for Himself Both existential psychologists identify uncertainty and anxiety not as problems to be solved but as fundamental condi...
- “I am a sick man... I am a wicked man. An unattractive man. I think my liver h...” — Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground Both articulate existential malaise as a fundamental condition of being rather than a temporary affliction, with Dost...
- “Modern man, freed from the bonds of pre-individualistic society, which simult...” — Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom Both diagnose modern anxiety as stemming from the loss of traditional structures—Fromm sees pseudo-freedom creating i...
- “Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of expe...” — James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Joyce's exuberant embrace of existence as creative forge directly confronts May's recognition that our being-in-the-w...
- “I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell y...” — Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake Vonnegut's irreverent embrace of purposelessness offers a liberating counterpoint to May's existential anxiety, sugge...
- “I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolut...” — Albert Camus, The Stranger Camus's selective certainty represents a strategy for managing the existential anxiety May describes as fundamental t...