A Comparison of Heidegger’s Concept of Anxiety and Other Psychological Concepts of Anxiety

Abstract

In this paper the author discusses how the psychological concepts of anxiety differ from Heidegger’s philosophical concept of anxiety and in what ways they are similar. An attempt to discover the essential elements of the psychological concepts of anxiety and their common denominator is made. Furthermore, the author exposes the differences between the psychological concepts of anxiety and finds out that we could classify them into ‘anxiety of nothingness’ and ‘anxiety of everything’. Both types of anxiety have something in common: level of stimuli is not optimized. In the former case there is a lack of stimuli and in the latter a surplus of stimuli. Also comparison of the psychological concepts of anxiety with Heidegger’s concept of anguish is made. In paper is established that comprehension of anxiety in psychology corresponds to some extent with ‘Heidegger’s anxiety’. The author also considers to what extent a fear of death underlies anxiety and what is the nature of fear of death in anxiety.