Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Mistica12 t1_ixiy12s wrote

Reply to comment by HobbyMathematician in eli5 is there a scientific explanation or reason for intrusive thoughts or call of the void by DapperWheel521

Kierkegaard explains this feeling in his book, The Concept of Anxiety. As an example, he asks us to consider a man standing on a cliff or tall building. If this man looks over the edge, he experiences two different kinds of fear: the fear of falling, and fear brought on by the impulse to throw himself off the edge. This second type of fear, or anxiety, arises from the realization that he has absolute freedom to choose whether to jump or not, and this fear is as dizzying as his vertigo. Kierkegaard suggests that we experience the same anxiety in all our moral choices, when we realize that we have the freedom to make even the most terrifying decisions. He describes this anxiety as “the dizziness of freedom”, and goes on to explain that although it induces despair, it can also shake us from our unthinking responses by making us more aware of the available choices. In this way it increases our self-awareness and sense of personal responsibility. ”

https://educationmuseum.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/kierkegaard-anxiety-is-the-dizziness-of-freedom/

127

OmegaIXIUltima t1_ixjumpx wrote

Fascinating, I experienced that second fear just last night.

7

MSMmethenger t1_ixljcn0 wrote

"Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don't hang yourself, you'll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both."

Good ol' Soren, cheery bloke.

2

Intergalacticdespot t1_ixnwwel wrote

I think research focuses on edge cases too much. We don't think of the number of times we have an urge to put a candy bar in our pocket at the store, put a fork in the garbage disposal, or dump a cup of coffee into the printer/our cubicle mates' lap. But I think it's all the same. Even just what if I didn't tie my shoes today, what if I didn't look back before I backed the car out, what if I flipped off that cop on the side of the road. All of these things are similar but less life threatening and don't really come up in the research as much. If at all. The focus on what if I throw myself off this bridge missed that...we have similar anti-social or destructive thoughts about things all the time. It misses some of the complexity of human experience when we only talk about extremes or edge cases. Imo.

2

Old-Chemist-1748 t1_iy9tix7 wrote

I really can't say that I've ever been on the edge of a building, and been afraid of MY IMPULSE to throw myself off. And I've literally sat on a 10 story parking garage, like with my legs over the side of the building just you know sitting there like on a bench. I mean I knew that I could very well maintain my balance, I'm not afraid of heights, so really neither fear applied to me there. But never have I been afraid because I have a choice to jump. I mean that could apply while I'm walking down the street. I might just decide to jump in front of this truck. I understand the concept of what he was trying to say, I just don't think his delivery is very good. I think I have pictures of that, I mean of me sitting on the top of that building. I'm grandma though I don't know how to add pictures. Can you even do that?

1