This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Angst" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The Scream (1893) by Edvard Munch represents his experience of "an infinite scream passing through nature." Part of a series onEmotions Affect Classification In animals Emotional intelligence Mood Self-regulation Interpersonal Dysregulation Valence Emotions Acceptance Admiration Affection Amusement Anger Angst Anguish Annoyance Anticipation Anxiety Apathy Arousal Awe Belongingness Boredom Confidence Confusion Contempt Contentment Courage Curiosity Depression Desire Determination Disappointment Disgust Distrust Doubt Dysphoria Ecstasy Elevation Embarrassment Emotional detachment Empathy Enthusiasm Envy Euphoria Faith Fear Frustration Gratification Gratitude Greed Grief Guilt Happiness Hatred Hope Horror Hostility Hubris Humiliation Interest Jealousy Joy Kindness Limerence Loneliness Love Lust Nostalgia Outrage Panic Passion Pity Pleasure Pride Rage Regret Rejection Relief Remorse Resentment Sadness Saudade Schadenfreude Self-pity Shame Shock Shyness Social connection Sorrow Suffering Surprise Suspicion Trust Wonder Worry vte
Angst is a feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity.[1] Anguish is its Latinate equivalent, and the words anxious and anxiety are of similar origin.
Etymology[edit]The word angst was introduced into English from the Danish, Norwegian, and Dutch word angst and the German word Angst. It is attested since the 19th century in English translations of the works of Søren Kierkegaard and Sigmund Freud.[1][2][3] It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety, or inner turmoil.
In other languages (with words from the Latin por for "fear" or "panic"),[4] the derived words differ in meaning; for example, as in the French anxiété and peur. The word angst has existed in German since the 8th century, from the Proto-Indo-European root *anghu-, "restraint" from which Old High German angust developed.[5] It is pre-cognate with the Latin angustia, "tensity, tightness" and angor, "choking, clogging"; compare to the Ancient Greek ἄγχω (ánkhō) "strangle". It entered English in the 19th century as a technical term used in psychiatry, though earlier cognates existed, such as ange.
Existentialism[edit] See also: Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard § Dread or anxietyIn existentialist philosophy, the term angst carries a specific conceptual meaning. The use of the term was first attributed to Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855). In The Concept of Anxiety (originally translated as The Concept of Dread), Kierkegaard used the word Angest (in common Danish, angst, meaning "dread" or "anxiety") to describe a profound and deep-seated condition. Where non-human animals are guided solely by instinct, said Kierkegaard, human beings enjoy a freedom of choice that we find both appealing and terrifying.[5][6] It is the anxiety of understanding of being free when considering undefined possibilities of one's life and the immense responsibility of hing the power of choice over them.[6][7] Kierkegaard's concept of angst reappeared in the works of existentialist philosophers who followed, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Martin Heidegger, each of whom developed the idea further in individual ways. While Kierkegaard's angst referred mainly to ambiguous feelings about moral freedom within a religious personal belief system, later existentialists discussed conflicts of personal principles, cultural norms, and existential despair.
Music[edit]Existential angst makes its appearance in classical musical composition in the early twentieth century, both as a result of philosophical developments and as a reflection of the war-torn times. Notable composers whose works are often linked with the concept include Gust Mahler, Richard Strauss (operas Elektra and Salome), Claude Debussy (opera Pelléas et Mélisande, ballet Jeux), Jean Sibelius (especially the Fourth Symphony), Arnold Schoenberg (A Survivor from Warsaw), Alban Berg, Francis Poulenc (opera Dialogues of the Carmelites), Dmitri Shostakovich (opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, symphonies and chamber music), Béla Bartók (opera Bluebeard's Castle), and Krzysztof Penderecki (especially Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima).[citation needed]
Angst began to be discussed in reference to popular music in the mid- to late 1950s, amid widespread concerns over international tensions and nuclear proliferation. Jeff Nuttall's book Bomb Culture (1968) traced angst in popular culture to Hiroshima. Dread was expressed in works of folk rock such as Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" (1963) and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". The term often makes an appearance in reference to punk rock, grunge, nu metal, and works of emo where expressions of melancholy, existential despair, or nihilism predominate.[citation needed]
See also[edit] Anger – Intense hostile emotional state of mind Byronic hero – Type of antihero often characterized by isolation and contemplation Emotion – Conscious subjective experience of humans Existentialism – Philosophy dealing with absurdity of existence Franz Kafka – Austrian and Czech writer (1883–1924) Emotion classification#Lists of emotions – Contrast of one emotion from another Death anxiety – Anxiety caused by thoughts of death Sehnsucht – German noun for an emotion of longing Alienation – Disconnection in social relationships Sturm und Drang – Proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music Terror management theory – Social and evolutionary psychology theory Weltschmerz – German word for deep sadness about the state of the world References[edit] ^ a b "Angst". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved December 12, 2018. ^ "Angst". Dictionary.com. ^ "Angst". Online Etymology Dictionary. ^ "por, poris [m.] C". Latin Is Simple. Retrieved February 1, 2021. ^ a b "Angst". The Free Dictionary. ^ a b Marino, Gordon (March 17, 2012). "The Danish Doctor of Dread". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved May 18, 2013. ^ Backhouse, Stephen (2016). Kierkegaard: A Single Life. HarperCollins Christian Publishing. ISBN 9780310520894. Retrieved July 17, 2017. External links[edit] The dictionary definition of angst at Wiktionary vteEmotions (list)Emotions Acceptance Admiration Adoration Aesthetic Affection Agitation Agony Amusement Anger Angst Anguish Annoyance Anticipation Antipathy Anxiety Apathy Arousal Attraction Awe Belongingness Boredom Calmness Comfort Compassion Confidence Confusion Contempt Contentment Courage Cruelty Curiosity Defeat Depression Desire Disappointment Disgust Distrust Doubt Dysphoria Ecstasy Embarrassment vicarious Emotion work Empathy Emptiness Enthrallment Enthusiasm Envy Euphoria Excitement Faith Fear Flow Frustration Fun Gratification Gratitude Greed Grief Guilt Happiness Joie de vivre Hatred self-hatred Hiraeth Homesickness Hope Horror Hostility Humiliation Hygge Hysteria Ikigai (sense of purpose) Indulgence Infatuation Insecurity Insignificance Inspiration Interest Irritation Isolation Jealousy Joy Kindness Loneliness Love at first sight limerence obsessive parental passionate and companionate Lust Mono no aware Neglect Nostalgia Outrage Panic Passion Pity self-pity Pleasure Pride grandiosity hubris insult vanity Rage Regret Rejection Relaxation Relief Remorse Resentment Revenge Sadness melancholy Saudade Schadenfreude Sehnsucht Sentimentality Shame Shock Shyness Solitude Social connection Sorrow Spite Stress chronic Suffering Surprise Suspense Suspicion Sympathy Trust Wonder sense of wonder Worry Zest Worldviews Cynicism Defeatism Fatalism Misanthropy Nihilism Optimism Pessimism Reclusion Weltschmerz Related Affect consciousness in education measures in psychology Affective computing forecasting neuroscience science spectrum Affectivity positive negative Appeal to emotion Amygdala hijack Emotion and art and memory and music and sex and sleep classification circumplex EmojiGrid Lövheim PAD Plutchik evolution expressed functional accounts group homeostatic in animals perception recognition in conversation regulation interpersonal work Emotional aperture bias blackmail competence conflict contagion detachment dysregulation eating exhaustion expression and gender intelligence and bullying Empathy quotient intimacy isolation lability labor lateralization literacy prosody reasoning responsivity security symbiosis thought method well-being Emotionality bounded Emotions and culture history in decision-making in the workplace in virtual communication moral self-conscious social social sharing sociology Feeling Group affective tone Interactions between the emotional and executive brain systems Jealousy in art Mental state Meta-emotion Pathognomy Pathos Social emotional development Stoic passions Theory affect affect as information appraisal Cannon–Bard constructed emotion discrete emotion Emotion regime James–Lange somatic somatic marker two-factor Italics indicate emotion names in foreign languages Category vteSøren Kierkegaard Influence and reception Philosophy Theology Works1841–1846 On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates Either/Or De omnibus dubitandum est Two Upbuilding Discourses, 1843 Repetition Three Upbuilding Discourses, 1843 Fear and Trembling Four Upbuilding Discourses, 1843 Two Upbuilding Discourses, 1844 Three Upbuilding Discourses, 1844 Philosophical Fragments Prefaces The Concept of Anxiety Four Upbuilding Discourses, 1844 Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions Stages on Life's Way Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments Two Ages: A Literary Review 1847–1854 Edifying Discourses in Diverse Spirits Works of Love Christian Discourses The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air Two Minor Ethical-Religious Essays The Sickness unto Death Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays Practice in Christianity The Book on Adler For Self-Examination Posthumous The Point of View of My Work as an Author Judge for Yourselves! The Journals Writing Sampler Ideas Angst Anguish Authenticity Double-mindedness Indirect communication Infinite qualitative distinction Knight of faith Leap of faith Levelling Present age Ressentiment Rotation method Despair People Regine Olsen Peter Kierkegaard Hans Lassen Martensen Jacob Peter Mynster J. L. Heiberg Thomasine Christine Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd Adolph Peter Adler Related topics Danish Golden Age Søren Kierkegaard Research Center Howard V. and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library Prayers of Kierkegaard Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook Nytorv 27 (birthplace) Rosenborggade 7–9 Skindergade 38 (last home) Statue of Søren Kierkegaard The Central European Institute Søren Kierkegaard vteExistentialismVariants Atheistic Christian Jewish Islamic Nihilist Phenomenological Concepts Abandonment Absurdism Angst Authenticity Bad faith Being in itself Dasein Existence precedes essence Existential crisis Facticity Leap of faith Meaning Nihilism Other Ressentiment Thrownness PeopleArtists Beckett Buzzati Camus Cioran Dostoevsky Ellison Fondane Giacometti Ionesco Kafka Mahfouz Marcel Sartre Unamuno Wilson Wright Philosophers Abbagnano Arendt Barth Berdyaev Buber Bultmann Camus Carlyle Cioran Beauvoir Fanon Flusser Fondane Heidegger Husserl James Jaspers Kaufmann Kierkegaard Levinas Marcel May Merleau-Ponty Nietzsche Ortega y Gasset Rosenzweig Sartre Shestov Soloveitchik Tillich Unamuno Wilson Wright Zapffe Related Continental philosophy German idealism Marxist humanism Phenomenology Transcendentalism Western Marxism Authority control databases InternationalGNDNationalCzech Republic