The archetype of the Wanderer appears as a figure of profound loneliness, who drifts through life without a fixed home or direction, restless in the search for purpose and belonging. He has far-sickness, a deep longing for distant places and the hope of eventually finding a place on earth where he truly feels at home.
Category Archives: Existentialism
The Fool Dances with Death
The Danse Macabre (or Dance of Death) is a late medieval motif that illustrates the universality of death. The constant famines, wars, and especially the Black Death in Europe showed how fragile and fleeting life truly was. Death was not a distant fate but a sudden, ever-present companion. This grim reality intensified the religious desireContinue reading “The Fool Dances with Death”
Why Modern Society Feels So Empty, Lonely, and Anxious
Loneliness, emptiness, and anxiety – these are the main complaints American existential psychologist Rollo May encountered over and over from his patients. In 1953, May published Man’s Search for Himself, in which he explores these problems – that are perhaps more relevant than ever in our modern age. When society can no longer give usContinue reading “Why Modern Society Feels So Empty, Lonely, and Anxious”
The Dark World of Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka is one of the major figures of 20th century literature who received little public attention during his lifetime. He dealt with existentialist themes such as alienation, anxiety, disorientation and the absurd. It is hard to put Kafka into a box. Many people have tried to read his work in the lens of psychoanalysis,Continue reading “The Dark World of Franz Kafka”
How Facing Nothingness Can Transform Your Life
Nothingness is generally considered to be analogous with death and extinction which every healthy living instinct wants to avoid. Many find the notion of nothingness unfathomable. The following thinker, however, was convinced that the way out of nihilism, that which renders meaningless the meaning of life, could only be reached by gazing into the abyssContinue reading “How Facing Nothingness Can Transform Your Life”
The 3 Hidden Anxieties That Control Your Life
Paul Tillich was a German-American Christian existentialist philosopher born in 1886 and is considered as one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. He is best known for his works The Courage to Be (1952), Dynamics of Faith (1957), and the three-volume work Systematic Theology (1951–63). At the age of 8, Tillich wouldContinue reading “The 3 Hidden Anxieties That Control Your Life”
The Philosophy of Existential Despair
Many people criticise philosophy as being disconnected from our daily existence, however, this critique is not new, it is in fact as old as philosophy itself. In the ancient Greek fable, “The Astrologer who Fell into a Well”, Thales of Miletus, considered as the first philosopher, is said to have been so lost in thoughtContinue reading “The Philosophy of Existential Despair”
The Underground Man – Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Warning to the World
Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote Notes from Underground in 1864 which is considered to be one of the first existentialist works, emphasising the importance of freedom, responsibility and individuality. It is an extraordinary piece of literature, social critique and satire of the Russian nihilist movement as well as a novel with deep psychological insights onContinue reading “The Underground Man – Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Warning to the World “
Nihilism – Friedrich Nietzsche’s Warning to The World
“What I relate is the history of the next two centuries. I describe what is coming, what can no longer come differently: the advent of nihilism… For some time now, our whole European culture has been moving as toward a catastrophe, with a tortured tension that is growing from decade to decade: restlessly, violently, headlong,Continue reading “Nihilism – Friedrich Nietzsche’s Warning to The World”
KIERKEGAARD: The Knight of Faith
The knight of faith is one of Kierkegaard’s most important concepts, which he discusses in Fear and Trembling in the “Preamble from the Heart”, written under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio. There are three spheres of existence in Kierkegaard’s philosophy: the aesthetic, the ethical and the religious. In Fear and Trembling he analyses the contradictionsContinue reading “KIERKEGAARD: The Knight of Faith”