Existential Anxiety Research Articles

Well-being and internal resources during the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to meaning in life and existential anxiety.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an event that placed humanity in a context where confrontation with uncertainty, isolation, life threats, and significant changes in one's life were on a scale that exceeded by far any previous individual or community crises. The interest of the present research was to investigate the relationship between meaning in life (MiL) and existential anxiety (EA) with personal internal resources such as creativity, playfulness, well-being, and personal meaning. A total of 451 participants from 48 countries (mean age 34.93 years, standard deviation 12.62, 31.9% men, 67.4% women) were questioned via online questionnaires between May and June 2020. Cluster analysis was performed on the meaning in life and existential anxiety that generated four categories of persons: Reactive, Superficial, Preoccupied, and Dedicated. Well-being and internal resources were associated mostly with the Dedicated type and less with the Reactive one. Arguments relying on the existential positive psychology suffering model and the hostile world scenario are presented to support the results and plead for interventions that elicit meaning, stimulate creativity, and guide people in finding purpose in order to ultimately promote psychological and mental health.

Eternal outgroups: Afterlife beliefs predict prejudice

People express prejudice toward ideologically dissimilar groups. However, little research has explored (a) how specific beliefs, such as afterlife beliefs, relate to prejudice, (b) whether such beliefs can explain the known association between religiosity and prejudice toward value-threatening groups, and (c) the mechanisms through which afterlife beliefs predict prejudice. We addressed these questions by assessing individual differences in religious, spiritual, and secular afterlife beliefs and attitudes toward religious and political groups. Across four studies (N = 3996 U.S. adults), we find evidence supporting a group exclusion hypothesis: religious and secular afterlife beliefs predict prejudice toward value-incongruent groups (even after controlling for religiosity). We also find some evidence that religious afterlife beliefs explain the association between religiosity and prejudice against value-threatening groups. Finally, we find moderate support for an existential anxiety buffer hypothesis, wherein some afterlife beliefs predict increased peace of mind, reduced death anxiety, and in turn, reduced prejudice.

In Search of Ontological Security: Why the Anglo-American Special Relationship Endures

Abstract The period following World War II (WWII) marked a significant turning point in Britain’s global standing, characterized by the loss of its empire and the existential anxiety regarding its new role on the world stage. Dean Acheson’s famous quote, “Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role,” poignantly captures the sense of diminishing power and identity crisis experienced by the Kingdom since 1945. Along with the consequences of WWII, the process of decolonization, coupled with events such as the Suez Crisis, further confirmed Britain’s declining position in the international system, disrupting its established narrative of global power and leaving it in a state of ontological insecurity. This paper, focusing on ontological security studies in international relations, explores the connection between Britain’s ontological insecurity in the new global order after WWII, and the Anglo-American special relationship (AASR) as a response to these anxieties. In this context, the suggested theoretical framework promises to address the concepts of narrative identity and existential anxiety and their respective contributions to understanding the underlying factors in explaining the emergence and stability of the AASR.

Existential moods as resonances of being: Anchoring existential psychology in nature—An outline

An overview is provided of the psychological constituents of the emotional register, and special focus is given to the longer-lasting existential moods—our being-attuned to being—that we as humans experience. The classic concepts of existentialism (Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre) are reviewed and challenged. Moods, such as emptiness, meaninglessness, existential anxiety for freedom and nothingness, have not always been dominating aspects of human existence, nor are they today. These moods primarily stem from urbanity and modernity; but worldwide the majority of people do not know what autonomy, freedom, and relativity means. The outer as well as the inner nature of humans, and of human existence, are underexposed in classic and modern existential thinking. The aim here is to remedy this shortcoming by presenting an empirically anchored outline of a natural existential psychology, which, based on modern neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, comparative psychology, and phenomenology, provides further knowledge about our basic existential moods and our species-specific resonances of being-in-the-world.

Psychedelic-assisted Psychotherapy in 3-D: Acceptance, Connectedness, and Defensiveness

ABSTRACT As psychiatry weighs a move from a categorical to a dimensionally-based classification system, clinical research and treatment paradigms may shift towards identifying which dimensions of mental health can improve treatment outcomes across a broad range of diagnostic categories. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which is currently in clinical trials for a wide range of conditions from PTSD to tobacco dependency, holds promise for just such a dimensional approach to treatment. Anecdotal reports and qualitative studies have hinted at its potential for decreasing defensiveness and increasing feelings of acceptance and connectedness. In this theoretical paper, I draw upon ideas and research with psychedelics, infant observation, social psychology, and psychoanalysis to explain why psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is especially well-suited for addressing these dimensions of mental health. Because studies already support the use of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in one dimensionally-based application – the treatment of existential anxiety in patients with cancer – I begin with a look at psychological models of defensiveness in relation to the fear of death. I then use the models of Winnicott, Stern, Carhart-Harris/Friston and others to discuss the experiences of awe, omnipotence, and creativity within ordinary and psychedelic states, and touch on a fourth dimension of mental health, authenticity. I suggest psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy may be viewed as a transitional space ideally suited for working through experiences of disconnection through the process of illusion-disillusionment, allowing gradual acceptance. I conclude with a summary of how acceptance, connectedness, and defensiveness are related to each other and to one’s sense of self.

Polypharma Fiction

Abstract This article examines how the rise of polypharmacy changes the novel genre’s response to the pain of anxiety and its narrative interest. Necessarily focusing its scope while also registering the fluidity, complexity, and exigency of contemporary psychopharmacological experience, it focuses specifically on how anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications are activating an ongoing reassessment among contemporary novelists of ingrained assumptions regarding the centrality of mental suffering to aesthetics. The books I discuss as “polypharma fictions”—by Sheila Heti, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Anelise Chen—each challenge the idea of psychic pain as a precondition of narrative development—whether the pain of existential anxiety (Heti), capitalist aspiration (Moshfegh), or willful determination (Chen). Moving beyond the extremes of alarmism and advocacy that have largely structured scholarly responses to the rise of psychotropics, I attend to the formal significance of psychotropics for narrative temporality, tension, and plot. In this more recent fiction, the question is not whether psychotropics presage the end of the novel genre but, rather, what kind of novel it is that incorporates psychopharmaceuticals and, yet . . . goes on.

Evaluating the Effect of Telenursing and Multimedia Self-Care Educational Program on the Level of Existential Anxiety in Patients with COVID-19: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Background & Objective: For patients, COVID-19 disease is a reminder of non-existence and death. For this reason, these patients experience existential anxiety. One of the effective factors in the control and treatment of this disease is to educate patients on self-care to reduce the burden of these psychological problems on them. The present study was designed and conducted with the aim of evaluating the effect of self-care educational program using telemedicine and multimedia methods on the level of existential anxiety in COVID-19 patients.Materials & Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental research conducted on 88 COVID-19 patients referred to the comprehensive health service centers of Bandar Abbas, Iran from 2020 to 2021. Th0ey were selected using a convenience sampling method. The samples were randomly assigned to the multimedia (44 patients) and telenursing (44 patients) groups. Patients in both groups received education on self-care during COVID-19 disease for 21 days. The Existence Anxiety Scale was completed before and immediately after the intervention. Data were analyzed with SPSS software version 26. Descriptive statistics, normality test, independent t-test, homogeneity of variance and covariance, univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance were used.Results: The mean score of existential anxiety at the beginning of the study was 90.50± 12.57 and 85.25 ±16.12, respectively, in the telenursing and multimedia groups, and after the intervention, it was 46.88 ± 6.38 and 65.40 ± 9.59, respectively, in the telenursing and multimedia groups. After the intervention, the existential anxiety score was significantly reduced in the telenursing group compared to the multimedia group (p <0.001).Conclusions: Based on the findings of this study, self-care education programs and knowledge about necessary care during COVID-19 illness should be considered for patients in comprehensive health centers, and telenursing should be used for more effective self-care education.

Considerations for Pain Assessments in Cancer Patients: A Narrative Review of the Latin American Perspective.

Cancer incidence in Latin America is lower than in Europe or the United States but morbidity and mortality rates are disproportionately high. A barrier to adequate pain control is inadequate pain assessment, which is a relatively easy and inexpensive metric. The objective of this narrative review is to describe pain assessment for cancer patients in Latin America. Cultural factors may influence pain perception, including contextualizing pain as noble or natural suffering and aspects of what is now called "spiritual pain." Unlike other painful conditions, cancer pain may be strongly associated with existential fear, psychosocial distress, anxiety, and spiritual concerns. Pain assessment allows not just quantification of pain intensity but may elucidate pain mechanisms involved or psychosocial aspects that may color the pain. Many current pain assessment instruments capture only pain intensity, which is but one aspect of the pain experience; some have expanded to include functional assessments, mental health status evaluations, and quality of life metrics. A quality-of-life assessment may be appropriate for cancer patients since chronic pain can severely impact function, which can in turn create a vicious cycle by exacerbating pain. The incidence of cancer in Latin America is expected to increase in the ensuing years. Better pain assessment and clinician education are needed to help manage pain in this large and growing patient population.

How should IR deal with the “end of the world”? Existential anxieties and possibilities in the Anthropocene

AbstractThe Anthropocene, a proposed new geological age marking the planetary impact of humanity, is no longer a newcomer to the field of International Relations (IR). Several scholars have recognised the value, as well as the danger, of the Anthropocene for theorising international relations. This article focuses on the existentialist questions and ideas derived from IR’s engagement with the Anthropocene, particularly on the anxieties surrounding the extinction of the human species, the meaning of the Anthropos, and humanity’s planetary stewardship. By drawing on scholarly discourses on these physical, spiritual, and moral anxieties, I argue that existentialist thinking helps expose IR’s anthropocentric, universalist, and hubristic tendencies, which are also prevalent in the broader Anthropocene discourse. It also serves as a reminder of the freedom to explore possibilities, albeit with a lack of certainty, for reimagining the place of humanity and IR as a discipline in this new geological age. Therefore, existentialism reveals IR’s dissonance with the paradoxes and uncertainties that the Anthropocene brings while offering a path toward theorising the “end of the world”.

Students' experiences with educational-ethical challenges

The purpose of this research is to investigate students' experience with educational-moral challenges. The research method is qualitative and phenomenological. The statistical population of this research included all female students of the second secondary level. The sample was selected purposefully and according to the available samples. Data saturation in the field of the educational-moral challenge of identity confusion was done after 14 interviews, communication challenge after 15 interviews, and existential anxiety challenge after 17 interviews. The three-step Ricoeur's method was used to analyze the interview data. Findings include 5 main themes and 16 sub-themes. The research shows that the educational-moral challenges of students are rooted in their untested assumptions and false beliefs. The analysis of the students' experience provides a clear picture of their perceptions about each of the challenges, and the discovery and interpretation of their speech shows that each experience has depth and breadth, and from each experience, we can reach the hidden things of the word.
 Keywords: Challenge; education; ethics; morals; phenomenology.

Development and Validation of Responses to Personal Mortality Measure

The aim of this study was to develop and validate the Responses to Personal Mortality Measure (RPMM), a new self-report tool to assess existential skills in relating to personal mortality. Items reflecting responses to personal mortality were generated and then selected through a rating process. They were further refined using Three-Step Test Interviews (TSTI). The psychometric properties of 91 items were explored with an online sample of 869 respondents, randomly divided into an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) subsamples. Through EFA, six factors were obtained: Emotional Response, Self-Oriented Acceptance, Transcendental Acceptance, Relational Acceptance, Relief Acceptance, and Avoidance. Internal consistency coefficients ranged between .90 and .97 ( M = .94). The six-factor model showed good fit statistics in traditional and bifactor CFAs. The construct and incremental validity were supported by relationships with the Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWB-42); the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ); the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21); the Existential Death Anxiety Scale (EDAS); and the Existential Anxiety Questionnaire (EAQ). The RPMM is a self-report tool of responses to personal mortality that can be used to evaluate the relationship between existential skills and psychological wellbeing. Further research is needed to examine the psychometric properties of the RPMM in a clinical sample.

Anxiety in the Capitalism of Late Modernity

The logic of capitalism affects both individuals and society. Alienation augments existential anxiety in the current precarity capitalism, which keeps urging competition among individuals to survive in capitalism and grow more. Excessive individualism, materialism, and consumerism in capitalism may weaken social ties and lower self-recognition, augmenting the existential anxiety of individuals. Losers in capitalism aggravate their anxiety whereas even winners may keep being anxious in the never-ending competition in capitalism. As long as people are kept engaged in capitalism, the pressure of the competition leads to a vicious cycle that keeps inducing anxiety, which signifies the precarity of capitalism. Existential anxiety triggered by precarity capitalism leads to growing social risks as the competitive pursuit of profits and growth will lead to increasing economic activities that expand material throughputs and affect the environmental and social situations. Facing such a situation, reconsidering individuals' awareness and socio-economic priorities would be a way to escape from the vicious cycle, mitigating existential anxiety and risks in society. Individuals would need to shift away from a growth-oriented mindset towards being as part of the ecosystem and the world. This perspective would be compatible with the posthumanism perspective at societal level. The emerging discussion on post-capitalism and degrowth would give hints to shift from the competitive pursuit of profits of the current capitalism.

Social Withdrawal, Solitude, and Existential Concerns in Emerging Adulthood

This study aimed to investigate the ways subtypes of social withdrawal and dimensions of solitude are related to existential concerns in emerging adulthood. The links between social withdrawal/solitude and existential well-being are a highly neglected research issue. Participants were 774 emerging adults (50.4% males) aged 18–25 ( M = 20.07) from Greece. They completed measures on social withdrawal, solitude, authenticity, meaning in life, existential anxiety, and existential loneliness. We used structural equation modeling to analyze the data. Results indicated that shyness, avoidance, and isolation were associated with more existential concerns, whereas unsociability was associated with less existential concerns. The solitude dimensions—enlightenment, freedom, intimacy, and loneliness—were differentially associated with existential concerns, with enlightenment exhibiting the most existential benefits. Findings showed that existential well-being is dependent on emerging adults’ quality of withdrawal experiences and ability to make constructive use of solitude.

Postmodern Anxiety and the Neo-Victorian Dialogue with the Other in Graham Swift’s Ever After

ABSTRACT Graham Swift’s Ever After offers a literary treatment of the existential trauma that Darwinism has brought about in the nineteenth century. Further as part of the neo-Victorian sub-genre, Swift’s work intertwines this trauma with the anxieties characterising the twentieth century present of the novel. Swift charts two journeys which ultimately fail to culminate in a “happily ever after”, due to the impact of Darwinism in one case and the struggle against postmodern existential anxiety in the other. The novel juxtaposes the predicaments of two fictional characters and renders one’s apostasy in the past as a possible means for the protagonist’s attempt to cathartically release his pent-up feelings in the present. Our essay explores how the comparative equation between the two persons belonging to different eras in the novel corresponds to Emmanuel Levinas’ conception of the “other” as a significant factor in the assertion of the “self”.

Existential anxieties and right-wing populism in Europe—why people unconcerned by globalisation vote against it

In recent years several contributions have made the argument that right-wing populist voting is interrelated with individuals being negatively affected by globalisation. While there is certainly merit to this argument, it cannot explain why voters unconcerned by globalisation vote for right-wing populist parties. In this article we answer this question and argue that ontological insecurity or, the way we frame it, existential anxieties are a previously overlooked determinant of right-wing populist voting, as these anxieties make people vulnerable to right-wing populist crises narratives even when they are not affected by the crises. Using European Social Survey data for 12 Western European countries between 2004 and 2018, we construct a novel index that measures existential anxieties on the individual level. Our index shows (1) that existential anxieties increase the likelihood of right-wing populist voting and (2) that the fear fuelling narratives of these parties especially mobilise individuals with moderate globalisation attitudes.

From existential anxiety to post-traumatic growth: The stranded traveler during the pandemic outbreak

For many, the COVID-19 pandemic is an existential trauma. Existential traumas trigger people's ultimate concerns and shatter individuals' basic assumptions. Based on the perspective of existential positive psychology, this study explores the post-traumatic growth of travelers from Hubei, China, during the early outbreak period. Grounded theory is used to analyze the stranded experience of epicenter travelers during the sudden crisis. This study reveals the intertwined traumatic events that evoke existential anxiety in travelers, as well as five dimensions of post-traumatic growth. Moreover, a theoretical framework is presented, elaborating on the influence path of key factors such as social support, cognition, and coping strategies on post-traumatic growth. Finally, the finding shows a strong resonance between post-traumatic growth and transformative tourism experiences.

Germany in Crisis: Hitler’s Antisemitism as a Function of Existential Anxiety and a Quest for Sustainable Security

Abstract: This article presents the utilitarian functional drive behind Adolf Hitler’s antisemitism. It argues that Hitler’s political and proto-genocidal antisemitism was a function of the existential anxiety he felt about what he perceived to be the greatest polycrisis in centuries and his ensuing quest for sustainable security. Regaining security lay at the centre of his politicization and radicalization as well as of all his actions once in power. As the article contends, three ingredients had to come together to produce Hitler’s genocidal antisemitism: 1) an awareness of, belief in, and anxiety about, the existence of an existential national and international all-encompassing crisis; 2) a linking of Jews to that crisis; and 3) a translation of that link into a programme of total solutions and a quest for sustainable security. The goal of his antisemitism was to overcome a life-or-death mega-crisis to be able to return subsequently to a conventional pursuit of security. It was not to produce permanent security for eternity.

The outcomes of healthcare chaplaincy on hospitalized patients. A quasi-experimental study in Belgium

ABSTRACT Research on the effects of chaplaincy care is scarce and hampered by methodological limitations. Our quasi-experimental study (n = 256 at baseline) aimed to gain insight into the immediate and intermediate impact of chaplaincy care on inpatients’ existential anxiety, peace, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Multilevel modeling was used to analyze the data. After controlling for age, gender, education, (non)religion/(non)belief and religiosity, participants receiving chaplaincy care demonstrated greater immediate improvement in peace compared to the control group at posttest. This was not found for anxiety, depressive symptoms or existential anxiety, nor for any of the outcomes at the three-week follow-up assessment.

Existential Anxiety and the Divided Self in Margaret Atwood’s Selected Short Stories

در حالی که رمان‌های مارگارت آتوود موضوع بحث‌های انتقادی زیادی های بوده اند، مجموعه داستان های کوتاه‌ او چندان مورد توجه منتقدان قرار نگرفته و در بیشتر موارد نادیده گرفته شده اند. در این مقاله، داستان کوتاه قطبیت ها و مردی از مریخ که از نخستین مجموعه داستان های کوتاه آتوود انتخاب شده اند، با استفاده از تئوری‌های رونالد لینگ و سیمون دوبوارنقد میشود و خود تقسیم شده شخصیت‌هایی که ناامیدانه در جستجوی گرمای انسانی و تحقق زندگی دچار از هم پاشیدگی روانی میشوند بررسی می شود. لینگ در نظریات خود که برگرفته از فلسفه اگزیستانسیال است توضیح می دهد که احساس ما از خود، متناسب با کیفیت تعاملی که با افراد و محیط اطراف خود داریم شکل می گیرد. سیمون دوبوار به پیچیدیگی اداره زندگی و ابهام نهفته در هستی در نظریه های خود میپردازد. نقد دو منتقد روشن میسازد که چگونه انسانی که ناگزیر تنها به دنبال فرار از خود میگردد، هستی و وجود خود را نفی کرده است و جست و جو برای آزادی حقیقی از زمانی آغاز میگردد که انسان درمییابد خود مسئول ساختن دنیای اطرافش است، آنگاه که قوانین از پیش تعیین شده و اطرافیان دیگر نمیتوانند به یاری او بیایند. پژوهش حاظر با تکیه بر نقد این نظریه پردازان نشان میدهد شخصیت های آتوود خود را با اضطرابی روبرو میبینند که نمیتوانند بر آن غلبه کنند، راه آزادی و انسانیت به روی آنها بسته میشود، و خود را در روان پریشی و از هم پاشیدگی روانی گرفتار میبینند.

“Our ways among strangers”: tradition and late modernity in Hollist’s So the Path Does Not Die

Questions of modernity, globalization, and transnationalism have occupied the thematic focus of African literature in the past three decades. In this paper, I argue that the adverse consequences of modernity, globalization, and transnationalism are at the heart of risk and uncertainty in Pede Hollist’s novel So the Path Does not Die. I pursue Ulrich Beck’s understanding of the consequences of the victories of modernity as risks in the novel. Risks in the novel can be read at macro-levels of normative values and the socio-psychological frame of collective fear, that derive from choosing from multivariate mediating institutions, traditions, and social standards; on the meso-level of family or group disarray; and on the individual level of existential anxiety. In these three stages, the novel deals with the questioning and changing status of tradition in the social order and the transnational problems of risk in a world in which individuals have to share the consequences of dangers and threats that may have been produced elsewhere through policies and social frameworks. This novel interlinks the complexities of postcolonial fictionality with ongoing late-modernity dynamics to depict the risks of late modernity.