In The Sickness unto Death, Kierkegaard moves beyond anxiety on the mental-emotional level to the spiritual level, whereâ€”in contact with the eternalâ€”anxiety becomes despair. Both

The Sickness Unto Death

In The Sickness unto Death, Kierkegaard moves beyond anxiety on the mental-emotional level to the spiritual level, whereâ€”in contact with the eternalâ€”anxiety becomes despair. Both anxiety and despair reflect the misrelation that arises in the self when the elements of the synthesisâ€”the infinite and the finiteâ€”do not come into proper relation to each other. Despair is a deeper expression for anxiety and is a mark of the eternal, which is intended to penetrate temporal existence.

The Sickness Unto Death