Doświadczenie lęku egzystencjalnego jako sytuacja wyboru

Abstract

Anxiety is a notion used in various contexts. The colloquial language uses it, side by side with fright, fear, terror etc., to refer to an emotional state that appears in a situation of menace. In psychology, anxiety is usually understood as a psychopathological symptom, resulting from unconscious conflicts disguised by the personality’s defence mechanisms, or from a wrong course of the process of learning. It is only the existential current in psychology that treats anxiety as an essential phenomenon making part of man’s unique nature. Such a point of view is based on the philosophers - existentialists’ thought: proposed by S. Kierhegaard it found its place among crucial ontological theses in M. Heidegger’s works. The present study presents three conceptions by means of which some existential problems have been expressed and interpreted. All of them should be placed in the borderland between philosophical anthropology and psychology. According to P. Tillich, anxiety is the condition of becoming aware of the possibility of non-existence. Man’s basic task is to face this challenge courage, which can truly happen only through an act of absolute faith. In V.E. Frankl’s thought, suffering achieves an exceptional importance, for it is suffering that makes man pose and answer the question about the meaning of life. Through an individual’s authentic attitude to the revealed dilemmas and quandaries, his or her fullness of personality is expressed. In K. Dqbrowski’s theory, the experiencing of existential problems is one of the aspects of disintegration, that is of a fundamental mechanism that conditions man’s psychic and mental development. In all of those conceptions, existential auxiety is treated and as experience inextricably linked with humanity. The fundamental and practical task that now presents itself is to choose an attitude towards life, for an individual has to address, in this way, the matter revealed through anxiety. The conceptions of the analysed authors clearly point out the authentic styles of life compatible with the truth about the human condition. It seems that such reflections, even though they are abstract enough, may still have a palpable influence on man’s immediate actions. They may be applied, for example, to the practice of psychotherapy, since quite a few of those who turn for psychological help are persons suffering from existential problems. The methods of treatment, especially of psychiatric treatment, that have recently gained currency are typified by their almost complete ignorance of whatever goes beyond the psychophysical dimension of man’s nature. The proposal to make use, in keeping with ancient traditions, of the philosophical thinking as psychotherapeutic factor may prove quite advantageous.