Ontological anxiety - Uncertainty
As anyone who has discussed buddhism with me knows I draw quite a lot of parallels between existential psychology and buddhism as they seem to focus on the same problems but attack them from different approachs. The existential approach seems more of an escalade than a siege, a deep and intense read that catapults you over the walls of your mind rather than sitting waiting, starving it out hoping for a breach when you can finally storm the seemingly impregnable fortress. Depending on the type of walls you have depends on the approach you prefer.
My latest subject for investigation is Ontological anxiety. The two main protagonists of existentialism on this subject are Heidegger and kierkagaard, though I have been unable to purchase books on them yet there are many works to be read on the internet.
The first assertion about the nature of anxiety is this:
anxiety is the state in which
a being is aware of its possible nonbeing.
The same statement, in a shorter form, would read:
anxiety is the existential awareness of nonbeing.
"Existential" in this sentence means that
it is not the abstract knowledge of nonbeing which produces anxiety
but the awareness that nonbeing is a part of one's own being.
It is not the realization of universal transitoriness,
not even the experience of the death of others,
but the impression of these events on the always latent awareness
of our own having to die that produces anxiety.
Anxiety is finitude, experienced as one's own finitude.
This is the natural anxiety of man as man,
and in some way of all living beings.
It is the anxiety of nonbeing,
the awareness of one's finitude as finitude.
—Paul Tillich The Courage to Be p. 35-36
(New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1952)
Anxiety is something individual to humans and inextricably linked to awareness. It is only as we become aware of ourselves, develop a consciousness that we feel anxiety. Animals do not suffer this trait peculiar to humans. It is reasonable to say that the more intelligent and individual suffer more than others.
Kierkagaard thought the story of the expulsion of adam and eve was a metaphor for the process of humans becoming aware of themselves, the fact that the apple bestowed knowledge and self consciousness. It is the moment a human becomes self aware and a process we all go through in early childhood. This realisation of being seperated from the rest of the world brings with it the uncertainty that is slowly buffered and dissipated by the indoctrination of culture, religion and community. The strength people feel in groups and collectives is a blanket that protects them from anxiety.
Anxiety is not a bad thing, it shows awareness of the human condition. The social constructs that protect us from the uncertainty of life lead to a false self. The more aware we are the more anxiety we feel. This is not to be confused with fear which is a fear of something direct and real, anxiety is the fear of the unknown and are diagnosable in real terms by the psychosomatic effects on the body.
(fear being concern for the biological death, actual dangers. Anxiety being a fear of the cessation of self, addressed later)
Existentialists talk about being able to move beyond existential anxiety into another state, I would draw a comparison here between nibana and this state for those that are interested.
The most powerful catalyst of anxiety and the biggest ontological confrontation we must face is death. The fear of death is a broad subject:
The objective empirical biological death, the cessation of our physical bodies.
Our subjective fear of mortality and ceasing to be, the extinction of the self
Ontological anxiety
Most of the sources I have drawn from in reading this seem to confuse the second and the third point quite regularly. The fear of death that is most apparent is the first biological death which people most often focus on, this is an easy way to mask the more latent fears. Others hide behind religion as a way of stifling the fear in the hope that the first death will not lead to the second, the cessation of self. The hope that the self will carry on in another form is a construct specifically designed to address the fear. In other cases it is trivialised, ignored or masked in nihilism or blinded by philosophy. This allows people to view death objectively as a spectator rather than as a central fact of their being and recognising their participation in the process.
If we can move past the objective passive observation of death as an objective event, past the very real fear - the inner fear of a cessation of being and look at the third more pervasive anxiety which occurs with self awareness and has little to do with death. While ontological anxiety has little to do with death, a lot of our fear of ceasing to be is linked to ontological anxiety.
To move behind this requires transforming yourself into a more authentic being. Deconstructing the social constructs and beliefs, working past the repression and getting past the tricks of the mind that help in the repression of anxiety.
It seems like a positive way forward in Tolstoys "The Death of Ivan Ilych" you see someone faced with death discovering a new lease of life, and renewed relationships with family and friends. Its not all roses however:
Some concern has arisen as to how this investagitive process can actually destabilise some with low self esteem (oh crap) There isn't really a clear consensus on this as yet. Patrick C Thauberger and his colleagues used a construct called "avoidance of ontological confrontation" as a basis for an empirical study which confronts the notion that awareness of death is a positive answer to the problem of this anxiety. Individuals who confronted death showed a higher use of soft drugs and stimulants and a lower self reported state of health and quality of life. So they showed no better than the "avoiders of confrontation with death" who required certain aids to help cope with reality. The study was inconclusive and complex, with a lot of variables.
The consequences of ontological confrontation can be discerned empirically. In one experimental study, Christian subjects either considered or not considered the question of their own death, and were then asked to rate target persons on an interpersonal attraction scale. Ontological confrontation caused them on the one hand to rate a target peron significantly more favorable who was presented as a fellow Christian, that is an ingroup member. On the other hand, thinking of their own death led to much less favorable ratings of target persons who were presented as Jews, that is outgroup members. The same pattern was found in a second study when subjects rated target persons who either held very similar or very dissimilar attitudes. Thus it seems that mortality salience leads to more negative evaluations of outgroup members and those who criticize one's culture. It provokes harsher punishment for moral transgressors and increased aggression against those who challenge one's beliefs. Another study has shown that for individuals for whom driving ability is a barometer of self-esteem, mortality salience leads to increased risk-taking while driving and while driving in a simulator task.
This puts more solid foundations on some of the views I have expressed in my concern with how religion effects us. Previously I labelled it as tribalism, which I believe is still an adequate answer but this brings into more focus why we feel strength in groups and permanence in community and the collective conscious. Also it provides some evidence that these things are damaging.
We have seen there may be consequences of ontological confrontation, a price to pay to be authentic and free. There is evidence that you can be happy without doing it however I would suggest that anyone who has anyone interest in self development and progression should consider asking some deep questions of oneself.
I will remain silent on whether a state can be progressed beyond this confrontation and a cessation of anxiety until I have achieved it, regardless of whether this state is possible I suspect the journey is worthwhile.
Peter
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Originally Posted by Cluny the Scourge
