anxiety: being and nonbeing

anxiety as ontological

In his book The Discovery of Being, Rollo May provides a perspective on anxiety as ontological. By this he means anxiety is situated at the level of our being and an essential characteristic of our existence as human individuals. This differentiates it from an affect among other affects, such as sadness and excitement, and from an abstract medical category indicating a cluster of symptoms. We may be able to bring this notion to light experientially through the particular experience pointed toward in the previous post “opportunities of the unknown“.

dread, grips of anxiety

According to May, “Anxiety is the experience of the threat of imminent nonbeing… the subjective state of the individual’s becoming aware that his existence can become destroyed, that he can lose himself and his world, that he can become ‘nothing.'” This sense that anxiety occurs at the center of our being can highlight the pervasiveness and invasiveness when we are in the grips of anxiety. Anxiety is consuming. In separating it from fear which often has an immediate, identifiable threat and occurs in the context of a situation, such as the classic example of encountering a bear in the wild, experiences of anxiety can include more difficult to discern or more generalized causes and persist across situations, striking us with a particular sense of unease, alarm and panic.

being v nonbeing

The inner tension and distinct experience of anxiety is the ever present and unfolding relation between being and nonbeing. “Anxiety occurs at the point where some emerging potentiality or possibility faces the individual, some possibility of fulfilling [one’s] existence; but this very possibility involves the destroying of present security, which thereupon gives rise to the tendency to deny the new potentiality.” We are always becoming, moving into our future with the opportunity of fulfilling the potentialities that are unique to our lives. Fulfilling our potential isn’t a given. There is a sense of freedom we have in whether or not we choose to assume our unique individuality and follow it to our potential. As discussed in my reflection on Carl Jung’s The Undiscovered Self, there are many factors contributing to why we might forego the opportunity, aware of this or not, to fulfill our potential.

freedom

We’re perpetually living forward into our future with no choice but to make choices. Our “present security” may be some sense of ourselves and our life that seems predictable, currently knowable and likely acceptable to others. We may choose this sense of security, even if on some level we feel dissatisfied, empty or miserable, rather than set out to discover some sense of fulfillment and well-being because we forgo the potential risks, loss and discomfort of uncertainty and change; the nonbeing facing the present “I”. Yet, living is change and uncertainty. We may choose to attempt to remain stagnant, but this isn’t without its cost as we will explore in the next post on May’s accompanying notion of ontological guilt.

psychotherapy perspectives

This perspective on anxiety as ontological doesn’t necessarily lead to “normalizing” all forms, presentations and levels of anxiety as a fundamental characteristic of human existence. Anxiety can manifest in ways that leave us unable to choose or function in a manner that could lead to the fulfillment of our potential. Living in a state of persistent overwhelm, flooded with anxiety, we are at reduced capacity for the inner space we need to choose. Without this, we are coping and surviving. In these circumstances, this perspective offers an opportunity to understand in the unique context of someone’s life the dynamics in which they’re confronted with a profound sense of nonbeing and what potentials are disallowed or blocked.

Whether this threat of nonbeing and denial of self is most pronounced existentially, through family of origin dynamics or systemic oppression and beyond, the therapy space and relationship may offer the unique opportunity for recognition, rather than negation, of one’s unique being and room to explore potentialities. As treatment progresses, anxiety may reduce and give way to increased self-regulation, opportunity to choose, willingness to take personally meaningful risk and live from a less threatened sense of self. Perhaps fulfillment and sense of well-being will be discovered, but in coming to terms with the predicament of our being perpetually faced with nonbeing, we come to understand that some level of anxiety will always be interwoven in our experience of human existence.

---

All quotes from: May, R. (1994). Discovery Of Being: Writings In Existential Psychology. W. W. Norton & Company.

If you live in Virginia and are struggling with anxiety, visit my website for more information about my psychotherapy practice: Examined Life Psychotherapy LLC

We’ll explore related topics further in upcoming posts. Consider subscribing to my Substack for updates: