Existential crisis

An existential crisis is a moment at which an individual questions if their life has meaning, purpose, or value. It may be commonly, but not necessarily, tied to depression or inevitably negative speculations on purpose in life (e.g., 'if one day I will be forgotten, what is the point of all of my work?'). This issue of the meaning and purpose of human existence is a major focus of the philosophical tradition of existentialism.Why should such existential concerns occur disproportionately among gifted persons? Partially, it is because substantial thought and reflection must occur to even consider such notions, rather than simply focusing on superficial day-to-day aspects of life. An existential crisis is a moment at which an individual questions if their life has meaning, purpose, or value. It may be commonly, but not necessarily, tied to depression or inevitably negative speculations on purpose in life (e.g., 'if one day I will be forgotten, what is the point of all of my work?'). This issue of the meaning and purpose of human existence is a major focus of the philosophical tradition of existentialism. An existential crisis may result from, be misdiagnosed as, or be combined with: An existential crisis is often provoked by a significant event in the person's life—psychological trauma, marriage, separation, major loss, the death of a loved one, a life-threatening experience, a new love partner, psychoactive drug use, adult children leaving home, reaching a personally significant age (turning 16, turning 40, etc.), etc. Usually, it provokes the sufferer's introspection about personal mortality, thus revealing the psychological repression of said awareness. An existential crisis may resemble anomie (a personal condition resulting from a lack of norms) or a midlife crisis. An existential crisis may stem from one's new perception of life and existence. Analogously, existentialism posits that a person can and does define the meaning and purpose of his or her life, and therefore must choose to resolve the crisis of existence. In existentialist philosophy, the term 'existential crisis' specifically relates to the crisis of the individual when they realize that they must always define their own lives through the choices they make. The existential crisis occurs when one recognizes that even the decision to either refrain from action or withhold assent to a particular choice is, in itself, a choice. In other words, humankind is 'condemned' to freedom. Existential crisis has often been negatively associated with depression. Peter Wessel Zapffe, a Norwegian philosopher and adherent of nihilism and antinatalism, asserted in his essay, The Last Messiah, four ways that he believed all self-conscious beings use in order to cope with their apprehension of indifference and absurdity in existence—anchoring, isolation, distraction, and sublimation: Others believe an existential crisis is actually a good thing—a burden of gifted individuals and deep thinkers that sets them apart from those who don’t think deeply about life: In the 19th century, Kierkegaard considered that angst and existential despair would appear when an inherited or borrowed world-view (often of a collective nature) proved unable to handle unexpected and extreme life-experiences. Nietzsche extended his views to suggest that the Death of God—the loss of collective faith in religion and traditional morality—created a more widespread existential crisis for the philosophically aware.