by Sabrina Ginesi

Created on: December 04, 2009   Last Updated: March 19, 2010

Anxiety is an ontological aspect of human existence because it is a necessary condition of the structures and fact of being. Ontological anxiety has to do with the absolute threat of non-being, it is not something we have but something we are and if faced squarely will increase self-preservation and self-enhancement. It is the unavoidable experience of addressing the most compelling paradoxes of human existence namely, life/death, freedom/desire to be free, isolation/desire to belong and meaning/meaningless. I will attempt to discuss ontological anxiety and show how understanding the ontological can help in psychotherapy using a case study to illustrate this.

Emmy van Deurzan-Smith encapsulates ontological anxiety as 'the basic unease or malaise which people experience as soon as they are aware of themselves and the position they take in their lives. It is the sensation which accompanies self-consciousness and awareness of one's vulnerability when confronted with the possibility to one's death. It is therefore the sine qua non of facing life and finding oneself' (van Deurzen-Smith, 1988, p.38). Our ontological anxiety is not derived from the fact of death, but much of our concern about death arises from our ontological anxiety, this is the paradox.

Existential psychotherapists take the experience of anxiety to be a fundamental 'given' of being in the world (Spinelli, 1989, pg 154), and existentialists paid considerable attention to the fundamental role of anxiety (Kierkegaard, 1844; Heigegger, 1927; Sarte, 1943; May, 1950). Understanding ontological anxiety illustrates the difference between anxiety and fear. Fear is generated by external threats and is based in fact, e.g. a dentist reaching for his drill to attack a sensitive tooth; it is objective and the person can stand outside and look at it.

However, anxiety penetrates the central core of one's sense of value and self esteem which holds utmost importance to ones experience of oneself as a being. Anxiety overwhelms the person's discovery of being, blots out the sense of time, dulls the memory of the past and erases the future which is perhaps the most compelling proof of the fact that is attacks the core of one's being (May, 1983, pg. 110). Take a first date, it sets off a complex triggering of any uncertainties lurking in our history by imagining what will go wrong, what will the person think of me, will I measure up to their expectations and will they like me. Because anxiety is subjective our

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