An existential crisis is an anxious state or a feeling of comprehensive psychological discomfort as a result of thinking about the essence of existence. This concept is common in countries where basic needs are satisfied. A person’s existential crisis can arise in adolescence or maturity (at the time of assessing the years lived), during the maturation of the individual. Such an experience can be quite painful, since there is no opportunity to find the necessary answers. There are several ways to cope with an existential crisis. Some individuals decide to stop asking these questions, since many different problems require participation and solutions. Others find a way out in the realization that only the present has meaning, so it is necessary to live it fully, so that later you do not regret the missed moments.
What is an existential crisis
A crisis state most often occurs in a person in the middle of life if he has failed to achieve success in one area or another. The first attempts to study this personal phenomenon were made by philosophers, and then psychologists showed interest in the problem of crisis in humans.
An existential crisis is a state in which a person realizes the insignificance of his existence. When he tries to determine his mission in life, he experiences feelings such as panic, despair, irritation, and sadness.
If a person is in an extensional crisis, his own life no longer seems to him to be the greatest value
An extensional crisis is associated with the fact that a person cannot understand why he lives. The realization that there is no meaning in life irritates a person, so many people tend to avoid thinking about their life’s purpose.
Transcendence
Transcendence (from the Latin transcendere - “to step over”) is a term in philosophy that means moving from one area to another, usually from the real and earthly to the otherworldly.
Existentialists have many definitions of the word "transcendence". According to some, transcendence is true being. It is necessary in an uncomfortable and unfriendly world, constrained by social conventions, to find a way to exist truly. Religious existentialists believe that such authentic existence can only be achieved through transcendence, that is, contact with God.
According to other philosophers, transcendence is the exit of human consciousness beyond its boundaries; a situation in which consciousness moves from the present to the future.
See also the meaning of Philosophy.
Types of existential crises
Existential crises are of the following types:
- Crisis of responsibility and freedom. The emergence of this crisis is due to the fact that life circumstances put pressure on the individual. A crisis of responsibility and freedom may arise in a teenager who cannot cope with the school curriculum. People who take on overtime work in production are also susceptible to this existence. Being in a crisis of freedom and responsibility, a person feels the need to radically change his life, but does not feel the resource for decisive action.
- Mortality crisis. A person encounters this existence 3 times throughout his life: in early childhood, in adulthood and in old age.
- Crisis of purpose. An existential vacuum in the soul occurs when a person does not have a clear life goal. Anxiety and irritation are caused by the fact that the brain of a person who has no goal cannot find something to do. In order to do something, the brain begins to stir up the past, forcing a person to regret what he has done, to sadly remember what can no longer be returned. An individual who is stuck in the past and engages in endless self-flagellation cannot be happy in the present. He also cannot plan for his future.
Afterword
The search for the essence of life is associated with human self-realization. Indeed, no one will like to hear that he is useless or that his existence and death will not change anything. Sublimation has a positive effect, that is, self-expression in creativity, for example, in music, poetry, prose, drawing.
Each person at some point tries to argue for his existence, someone says that “everything is God’s plan,” someone gives birth to children and sees the meaning of their life in prolonging the human race, and someone creates new medicines. There are, of course, unique people who insist that they were sent by higher powers, who constantly contact the individual, saying that he must convey something important to the whole world or simply knows how to heal. But this story often ends in psychiatry.
Signs of an existential crisis
Signs of an existential crisis first appear in adolescence. Teenagers think about who they are in this world and how they can be useful to society. However, the signs of an existential crisis are most pronounced in people who are over 40 years old.
Typical symptoms of an existential crisis are:
- a person feels awkward, his soul is empty, he cannot bring himself to engage in any socially significant activity;
- tendency to question everything;
- difficulties arise when an individual tries to find answers to questions that concern him;
- loneliness, lack of strong emotional ties with family and friends;
- lack of mutual understanding with loved ones;
- loss of the ability to enjoy life and enjoy the little things;
- disappointment in religion;
- anxiety;
- depression;
- refusal of love and marriage and family relationships due to the conviction that the union of a man and a woman cannot exist forever;
- lack of ability to independently set priorities, make decisions, manage your time and your freedom.
Yes
0%
No
0%
I find it difficult to answer
0%
Voted: 0
[edit] See also
- Emo
- OBVM
- Middle age crisis
| [ + ] “Existential crisis is the opium of the people!” | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Relationship between existential crisis and other conditions
An existential crisis entails disturbances in the emotional-volitional sphere. This personal pathology is associated with many mental disorders. As a rule, a painful search for an answer to the question of one’s life purpose causes in a person such states as:
- Bad mood;
- apathy;
- helplessness;
- indifference to what you previously liked.
The mental states of an individual listed above can be both a consequence of the onset of existence and its causes.
The task of a person who has developed emotional states associated with experiencing an existential crisis is to understand their root cause and find ways to deal with them.
Asya Rakhovich
Psychologist with more than 8 years of experience. Consultant on interpersonal and marital relationships, self-discovery.
Ask a Question
Why will a holistic approach help solve the problem?
Unlike classical psychology, which works only with the individual and considers a person’s mental processes separately from his physiological processes and spiritual component, holo-psychology has a holistic approach. This means that when working with a person, a holo-specialist proceeds from the fact that a person is a single structure in which all of the above components are closely interconnected. It takes into account all processes in a person’s life that occur both at the level of the psyche and at the level of the body and bioenergy.
An existential crisis, as we said above, goes beyond ordinary everyday and social problems. And, therefore, to solve it, it is not enough to work only with the personal plan. It is necessary to include human resource zones in the work (flows of the semantic and spiritual spectrums in the diagram). The diagram enlarges by clicking.
The tools of holistic psychology allow a person to come into contact with his own resource zone. This helps to release a large amount of energy, which is needed to resolve deep-seated conflicts.
Such contact can occur during a holistic psychocorrection session. Then a person begins to gradually find answers to his questions, comes to a more expanded understanding of the world, his role in it, and with this comes relief.
Causes of an existential crisis
Existence appears in life because every person realizes that he cannot live forever. When a person feels that the second half of his life is already underway, he begins to take stock. If there are no special achievements in life, a person becomes horrified. He begins to think that he is living in vain.
According to psychologists, the main reasons for existentialism are:
- fear of death;
- low self-esteem;
- unfavorable psychological environment at work, frequent conflict situations with superiors and colleagues;
- the person feels threatened by the social environment;
- chronic fatigue syndrome;
- emotional burnout;
- guilt.
History of existentialism
The founder of existentialism is considered to be the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Even in the first half of the 19th century, the philosopher expressed ideas close to existentialism.
In addition to the works of Kierkegaard, existentialists also drew inspiration from the works of such philosophical scientists as Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Edmund Husserl, Oswald Spengler, Henri Bergson, Georg Simmel and others.
It is no coincidence that the concept of existentialism was introduced by the German philosopher Heinemann in 1929. The atmosphere in the German Empire after the First World War provided good soil for the flourishing of negative emotions: worthlessness of life, abandonment, fear, loneliness.
What an existential crisis can teach a modern person
Psychologists encourage us to find the positive in any situation. Everything that happens to a person, he can use for his own benefit. The crisis associated with the loss of the meaning of life is no exception.
Faced with an existential crisis, modern man can benefit from this state. Thus, a crisis can teach him the following vital skills:
- Show tenacity and perseverance in everyday life. These qualities are necessary to achieve your goals. A purposeful person does not allow himself to give up when faced with difficulties and obstacles on the way to his goal. If he understands that his methods are ineffective, he will not give up trying, but will find other ways to get what he wants.
- Accept the fact that neither relatives nor friends are obliged to sacrifice themselves and their interests for the sake of another person. Each person has his own life, his own worries. Of course, a person can ask for help from loved ones, but he must be prepared for the fact that his request will be refused. An existential crisis helps an individual understand that being offended by someone’s refusal to take part in improving someone else’s life is a pointless exercise.
- Take responsibility for your own actions and your own inactions. Faced with existence, a person understands that his passivity does not contribute to positive changes in life.
The man decided to live the way he wants
- Realize that in order to become successful, you need to be yourself. When a person tries to appear to be someone he really is not, he first of all deceives himself. Even if others like the role that the individual has tried on for himself, he himself will be uncomfortable with such a position. To be able to find his calling, a person needs to be himself.
- Develop an unshakable system of life principles. Wanting to find meaning in life, a person needs to listen to his heart, and not to what others say. When a person understands his mission, he must be strict enough with himself so as not to succumb to temptations and immoral behavior. To do this, in everyday life he needs to be guided by his own value system.
- State your position in a reasoned manner. An existential crisis teaches a person to defend his legitimate rights and interests, while maintaining friendly relations with others.
- Evaluate people not by external characteristics, but by personal qualities. A person’s attempts to understand his own soul help him learn to understand people. This means that, experiencing an existential crisis, a person clears his immediate environment of casual acquaintances, dubious comrades and energy vampires.
How to Deal with an Existential Crisis
Some people hide from existential problems behind the screen of addictive behavior. But alcohol and excessive enthusiasm for work provide only temporary relief. Sooner or later, everything that a person suppresses will manifest itself. Crisis manifestations will force a person to do something to cope with loneliness and fear. You can find the meaning of life again if:
- Make informed choices. There are many roads open to every person, which means that he can take any of them. Based on his own life experience, common sense and life goals, a person must independently set priorities and choose the activity that he likes. According to philosophers, problems arise in a person when he does not know how to make decisions and take responsibility for them.
- Engage in self-knowledge and self-development. To understand his purpose, a person must know his strengths and weaknesses. Studying his personality, he sees what he needs to correct in himself. In this you can already find the meaning of life.
- Stop self-searching and endlessly comparing yourself to more successful people. Existential conflict arises when a person is jealous of a friend. Everyone’s natural inclinations and individual abilities are different, so if someone doesn’t know how to draw beautifully or play a musical instrument, this does not mean that he is completely incapable of anything. One has only to do something that gives pleasure, and it will immediately become obvious that the person is talented. To overcome envy of people with famous names, you need to concentrate on your own life and stop following the lives of celebrities.
- Build constructive relationships with society. Existential problems arise quite often in society. The lack of meaning in life is felt especially acutely by people living in cities with high population density. Using the example of metropolis life, we can describe in detail such social phenomena as indifference and selfishness. An accelerated pace of life, overwork caused by the desire to earn more money in order to satisfy personal needs, a lack of live communication - all these significant manifestations make a person feel his own insignificance. To protect himself from emotional burnout, a person needs to communicate with loved ones, meet friends, share impressions from watching a movie with colleagues. Live communication helps a person to survive an existential crisis with benefit, because in the process of interpersonal interaction he learns the shadow sides of his personality, opens up new horizons in himself, and gains the possibility of self-realization.
- Be creative. You can defeat existentialism with the help of creative creative activity. When a person does handicrafts, dances or plays music, he is working through his own existential experiences. His thoughts and feelings become a source of inspiration for him.
Creativity helps you find the meaning of life
Creativity has no age restrictions. This means that both a teenager and a pensioner can start creating.
By changing his own views, reconsidering life principles and values, a person will find ways to resolve existential problems.
