I. INTRODUCTION

As a law student, I am confident that we are all familiar with anxiety, an invisible entity that has psychological and physiological effects upon the individual in whom it arises. It causes us to experience fear and trembling in moments where opportunity and possibility are the ripest. Chronic or severe anxiety can manifest in the form of emotional distress, obsessive thinking, compulsive behaviors, relational struggles, and general restlessness. Anxiety often carries a negative connotation due to these effects. However, in this essay, I’d like to offer a different perspective on anxiety, a perspective that diminishes anxiety to a mere nothing while simultaneously promoting it as the most transformative feeling an individual can experience. An absurd paradox.  

That anxious, excited feeling we experience in the moments before seeing a long-awaited loved one is the same as the anxious, worried feeling we experience before taking an exam. To further redefine anxiety, we must differentiate it from fear, in that its object is nothing. Moreover, its object is not actualized. Actuality, in The Concept of Anxiety, authored by Vigilius Haufniensis (pseudonym of Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard), is the concept that any action, good or evil, must be actualized rather than remaining purely ideal. One can individually identify what they fear, as one can only fear something. Because a possible action or consequence is not an actualized action or consequence, it is not any-thing; it is no-thing. Therefore, nothing is anxiety’s object, and it can be redefined clearly as “freedom’s actuality as the possibility of possibility.” This means that anxiety is the awakening of freedom within us, and freedom is precisely the realization that being able is a possibility.  

For the law student, anxiety represents the self-awareness that their time as a law student is finite. It relates to a general concern about the future and impending graduation. Concern over the infinite number of unactualized possibilities that exist before the moment of graduation: the possibility of having an above-average, average, or below-average GPA; the possibility of being offered a position at a top firm, big law, public interest, academia, or pursuing further higher education. The law student confronts this infinite number of possibilities but must simultaneously acknowledge the fact that they cannot actualize all of these possibilities. This confrontation with finitude is a nothingness, as it shapes our being (what we are), yet we cannot come to terms with it. It is something that scratches at the back of our heads, persistently reminding us that we are inadequate and fail to be all that we want to be.

II. THE CONCEPT OF ANXIETY

In The Concept of Anxiety, Haufniensis defines anxiety as a feeling that is simultaneously drawn to and repulsed by the emptiness of potential futures. Thus, anxiety is not just a psychological state, mood, or feeling, but an ontological structure essential to human existence and is the representation of human freedom.  

Haufniensis compares anxiety to a kind of dizziness, akin to standing at the edge of an abyss. One is not compelled to fall, but is nonetheless confronted with the unsettling awareness that one could. Within this text, Haufniensis asserts that anxiety precedes Adam’s sin. It is not sin itself but the soul’s natural response when confronted with the vast, disorienting abyss of freedom. When God issued the command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the categories of “good” and “evil,” in Haufniensis’ view, held no meaning for Adam. Being within the Garden of Eden, Adam was free of sin and did not bear the burden of moral discernment. However, the predicament of freedom preceding Adam’s first bite yielded anxiety, as Haufniensis states, “the prohibition makes him anxious, because it awakens in him freedom’s possibility…the anxious possibility of being able.”  

Thus, by humanity being the offspring of Adam, individuals are born with the same freedom and anxiety, as “He is himself and the race. Whatever explains Adam therefore also explains the race, and vice versa.” Anxiety is an integral part of our beings, but the issue remains that it is unpleasant and feels unnatural. Haufniensis explains that the reason anxiety impacts an individual is because there must be a sliver of possibility of moving beyond it. This movement allows us the opportunity to have faith earnestly. Haufniensis refers to this movement as a “qualitative leap,” which may also aptly be described as a leap of faith.

First, one needs spirit in order to be anxious. As Haufniensis states, “the less spirit, the less anxiety.” This is why animals do not experience anxiety. Animals, though they may display fear responses, nervousness, or conditioned stress, do not suffer the existential crisis of being. A deer may fear an approaching predator, but it does not reflect upon its mortality, question the meaning of its existence, or agonize over moral choice. It does not dread the possibility of the forbidden. What, then, is spirit? The “human being is a synthesis of the psychical and the physical, but a synthesis is unthinkable if the two are not united in a third. This third is spirit.” Essentially, spirit is what makes us, “us.” One may personally equate spirit to the “self” or “consciousness.”  

Given this understanding of our structure as beings, a crucial dimension that must be addressed (especially for the law student seeking to confront anxiety), is the human experience of time.

III. TIME AND ANXIETY

Anxiety, properly understood, belongs to the realm of the possible. It is born not from what has already occurred, but from what may yet unfold. For the free-willed individual, the possible is inseparable from the future, and the future is, by its very nature, possibility. Thus, anxiety arises in the space between the self and its potential, that is, in the anticipation of what might be. To say one is anxious about the past is, in Haufniensis’ view, a linguistic misstep. If I am anxious about the past, then the past

“about which I am supposed to be anxious must stand to me in a relation of possibility. If I am anxious about a past misfortune, it is not insofar as it is past, but insofar as it may be repeated, that is, become future. If I am anxious because of a past offense, it is because I have not placed it in an essential relation to myself as past, but in some deceitful manner prevent it from being past. If it is actually past, then I cannot be anxious but only repentant.”  

Personally, I’ve experienced the event of disappointing grades, but I’ve acknowledged them as simply moments that have passed, and I have now proceeded forward, improving upon them. Whatever implications they have concerning the world’s view of me in light of my GPA have no bearing upon me until those moments actualize. For now, I’ve learned from these events and simply moved on. As for the law student, whatever anxiety arises over a failed cold call, a miswritten brief, or a missed job opportunity is not rooted in the historical finality of those moments, but in their lingering possibility, the fear that they foretell a pattern, that they will return in some future form, or that they define something essential about the self.  

Look to forgive yourself for any past transgressions and understand that you exist distinctly apart from life’s experiences. This will allow you to be present in the moment and consciously make choices that will affect the future you experience. Time is now reduced to a single instantaneous moment. As you experience each moment, you are faced with the opportunity to confront anxiety. If you fail to do so within that singular moment, all is well, as a new moment has already arrived.

IV. THE LAW STUDENT’S APPROACH TO ANXIETY

Anxiety is a part of life that can’t be avoided. It is a buffer between infinite possibility, and we experience it physiologically and psychologically so that we are not crushed beneath the weight of all that we could never be. However, we can try to deal with it in the right way, by facing it with earnest faith. Anxiety is tied to freedom because it comes from the possibilities that lie ahead. These possibilities aren’t just the happy and exciting ones; they also include the frightening and overwhelming ones. When you completely understand this, you begin to see life differently. You realize that while actual experiences can be hard, they are still easier to bear than the unknown possibilities that could happen next.  

Through earnest faith, we are called to be authentic and earnest, recognizing that anxiety is not a weakness but an invitation to entertain the possibility of what we could be. With earnest faith, there are two parts, as one must first understand what it means to be earnest. Within The Concept of Anxiety, earnestness is related to inwardness and is described as “the feeling unfolds itself to self-consciousness, and vice versa, that the content of the self-consciousness is felt by the subject as his own.” 

Earnestness is tied to how we feel and how that feeling shapes our self-awareness. It’s the strongest and deepest way we express ourselves. True earnestness isn’t about making something a habit; it’s about keeping the meaning and depth alive each time you return to it. When something becomes a habit, it loses its original depth, and it’s no longer earnest. The person who is truly earnest is always able to return to their feelings with sincerity and freshness, not just going through the motions. This is completely subjective to each individual, but it is a process that must be consistently done as one will gain the ability to be self-conscious and disarm anxiety by finding its source.

In my personal confrontation with anxiety, much like Kierkegaard, I rest my earnest faith in God and the absurd fact that through Him, all things are possible. With God, I have the “courage without anxiety to renounce anxiety,” which means acting as though God has already granted what I have asked of Him. So, in moments when I physically experience the fear and trembling of anxiety, I still proceed into the moment of opportunity. As mentioned earlier, time is not real; therefore, in moments when anxiety makes itself known, I attempt to act as though I have already passed through the moment, free of anxiety’s effects.

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Staniel Brutis is a second-year student at BC Law. Contact him at brutis@bc.edu.