Existentialism Quotes

“what distinguishes us from non-human organisms is that we do not simply react to biochemical impulses; we can transcend them by choosing to interpret them in particular ways.”
― Kevin Aho, Existentialism: An Introduction

“the American physician George M. Beard introduced the term ‘neurasthenia’ to the medical lexicon, referring to feelings of profound nervous exhaustion and anxiety that were becoming an epidemic in the industrialized cities of Germany, England, and the United States.”
― Kevin Aho, Existentialism: An Introduction

“When I am mentally healthy, I am integrated and woven into the world to such an extent that my body and my feelings remain largely hidden from me. They disappear in the practical flow of my daily life because I am already geared to my situation, seamlessly living through the medium of my body without explicitly reflecting on it. In this state of everydayness, there is no separation between self and world; the world appears spontaneously to me as something that I understand, that I belong to, and am 'at home' in. It shows up as real, secure, and reliable, and others show up for me as equally real, secure, and reliable. In this state, I have what Laing calls "ontological security". Secure in my being, I can pre-reflectively move through the world, handle various situations, and affectively involve myself in the lives of others. From the perspective of existential therapy, psychopathology begins to emerge when this embodied connection breaks down, shattering my sense of self. Without the unified bond of being-in-the-world to integrate and hold my identity together, I feel as if I am losing myself, as if I am becoming nothing. Existentialists usually refer to this uncanny dissolution of the self in terms of 'anxiety' or Angst.”
― Kevin Aho, Existentialism: An Introduction

“All systems, whether religious, philosophical, or scientific, are simply human constructions that express a psychological need for stability and control that protects us from the terrifying mutability and impermanence of existence.”
― Kevin Aho, Existentialism: An Introduction