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	Encyclopedia: Existential despair
		Existentialism is a philosophical movement that views human existence as having a set of underlying themes and characteristics, such as anxiety, dread, freedom, awareness of death, and consciousness of existing, that are primary.
		When discussing existentialism, people often are referring to Sartre's philosophy, but generalizations about existentialism should be made with caution, as the term refers to the works of a series of fairly divergent philosophers and authors, rather than a coherent and solitary world view.
		Existential despair is a subjective state, experienced by an individual.
	www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Existential-despair (773 words)

	Existentialism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		For existentialism, human beings can be understood only from the inside, in terms of their lived and experienced reality and dilemmas, not from the outside, in terms of a biological, psychological, or other scientific theory of human nature.
		Existentialism tends to view human beings as subjects in an indifferent, objective, often ambiguous, and "absurd" universe in which meaning is not provided by the natural order, but rather can be created, however provisionally and unstably, by human beings' actions and interpretations.
		Existentialism decisively rejects this argument, asserting instead that as conscious beings we always find ourselves already in a world, a prior context and history that is given to consciousness and in which it is situated, and that we cannot think away that world.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Existentialism (2974 words)

	Encyclopedia: Despair
		Despair in common usage is the condition of having abandoned hope.
		Despair, ethically regarded, is the voluntary and complete abandonment of all hope of saving one's soul and of having the means required for that end.
		Despair as such and as distinguished from a certain difference, sinking of the heart, or overweening dread is always a mortal sin.
	www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Despair (315 words)

	Info and facts on 'Existential despair' (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		The term despair, when used by existentialists (A philosopher who emphasizes freedom of choice and personal responsibility but who regards human existence in a hostile universe as unexplainable), refers to the fact that all the choices we make are based on uncertain information and an incomplete understanding of the world.
		When discussing existentialism, people often are referring to Sartre (French writer and existentialist philosopher (1905-1980)) 's philosophy, but generalizations about existentialism should be made with caution, as the term refers to the works of a series of fairly divergent philosophers and authors, rather than a coherent and solitary world view.
		The existentialist philosopher most concerned with despair is Kierkegaard (Danish philosopher who was the founder of existentialism (1813-1855)).
	www.absoluteastronomy.com /encyclopedia/e/ex/existential_despair.htm (354 words)

	The Sickness Unto Death - tScholars.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		It is about Kierkegaard's concept of despair, which he equates with the Christian concept of sin.
		To not be in despair is to have reconciled the finite with the infinite, to exist in awareness of one's own self and of God.
		The book describes a number of ways in which humans turn away from the self and from God, and at one point suggests that some people take pride in their despair, letting it stand as an example of God's fallibility like an error in a manuscript that refuses to be corrected.
	www.tscholars.com /encyclopedia/The_Sickness_Unto_Death (217 words)

	Station Information - Existential despair (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		Existential despair is a state of existence that can roughly be described as 'being depressed about simply being alive (or existing)'.
		Leibniz's assertion that we 'live in the best of all possible worlds' as satirised by Voltaire's creation of Dr. Pangloss in Candide is possibly relevant here.
		At least one school of psychiatric therapy, Existentialist Therapy, recognises this state and uses the philosophy of existentialism to help to provide insight into a person's condition.
	www.stationinformation.com /encyclopedia/e/ex/existential_despair.html (211 words)

	Nihilism [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
		By the end of the century, existential despair as a response to nihilism gave way to an attitude of indifference, often associated with antifoundationalism.
		Existential nihilism is the notion that life has no intrinsic meaning or value, and it is, no doubt, the most commonly used and understood sense of the word today.
		Existential nihilism begins with the notion that the world is without meaning or purpose.
	www.utm.edu /research/iep/n/nihilism.htm (2620 words)

	Existential Drug Dependence
		Existential psychology deals primarily with the phenomenal and emotional state of individuals, with a personís experience of the quality and meaning of his or her life, and of means and methods of therapeutic intervention, both verbal and nonverbal, which can lead to an enhancement of an individualís life state.
		Within the framework of existential theory, human beings are seen to be motivated primarily to satisfy and sustain basic needs and to fulfill certain aspirations (Maslow 1954).
		As a general theory of drug dependence, the existential theory does not deal with special risk populations except to comment that inherent in special subpopulations are the factors that give rise to personality maldevelopment, situational stress pathology, or unusual opportunity (such as availability or peer support), which give rise to abuse.
	www.addictionalternatives.com /philosophy/existentialtheory.htm (1939 words)

	Lev Shestov - Kierkegaard and the Existential Philosophy - God is Love (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		And now it becomes clear why Kierkegaard insists that the beginning of existential philosophy is despair, why he demanded that the knight of faith first of all pass through the stage of resignation, and what precisely he understood by the knight of resignation.
		And existential philosophy, which is so closely united with faith that only in the presence of and through faith can it do its work, finds in faith that new dimension which sets it apart from theoretical philosophy.
		With existential philosophy (which is why it is existential, and not speculative) "I cannot's" of any sort discredit not just the man, but the philosophy itself.
	shestov.by.ru /sk/sk_16.html (2996 words)

	Existentialism : Existential philosophy (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		Existentialism is a philosophical movement characterized by an emphasis on individuality, individual freedom, and subjectivity.
		It was inspired mainly by the German philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, and was particularly popular around the mid-20th century with the work of the the French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and others, including the novelist, essayist and playwright Albert Camus.
		Newport is more charming even than you remember it; like today; it is, indeed, I think, in all the world, the only exquisite now, which makes it all the better, though plenty of talkers remain.
	www.termsdefined.net /ex/existential-philosophy.html (591 words)

	Books : Irrational Man : A Study in Existential Philosophy (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		For those of you who want to learn a lot about existentialism, and/or those of you who find Husserl, Heidegger, and Sartre to be dauntingly difficult and/or time-consuming, this book is hands-down the best.
		Popular movies like American Beauty and Fight Club with their common themes of existential angst and despair make this book more relevant now that when it was first written.
		Existentialism is an attempt to place man back -where he was prior to the Greek 'invention' of reason- as the locus of the manifestation of Being.
	vnet.org /Reviews/ItemId/0385031386/ReviewPage/3 (788 words)

	When Nietzsche Wept (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		This condition of despair had already been identified and discussed in the writings of Kierkegaard and Dostoyevsky and in the poems of Hoelderlin.
		The chief symptom of Breuer's despair is his intruding possession with his former patient Bertha.
		Despair lies, ultimately, in the recognition that one has made poor choices, perhaps never even chosen at all.
	www4.hmc.edu:8001 /humanities/beckman/Nietzsche/Yalom.htm (1097 words)

	Despair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The character Despair in the Sandman series of comic books by Neil Gaiman
		Despair, Inc., a company that makes satirical posters and souvenirs
		This is a disambiguation page—a list of articles associated with the same title.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Despair (103 words)

	The Search for Authenticity: Aspects of Conrad’s Existential Vision
		However, by relying on features of existential thought rather than attempting to discus even one “existential” philosopher’s invariably subjective understanding of the nature and meaning of being, it is possible circumvent this dispute, while at the same time examining Conrad’s own subjectivist artistic outlook.
		Although treatment of existential despair must again be deferred, it is another central tenet of existentialist thought and a key emotional stage for many of Conrad’s characters.
		Marcel discusses the ramifications of despair and suicide thoroughly: ‘Only by dealing with questions of this kind-of death, suicide, and betrayal-can the thinker hope to experience the ‘dizziness’ which is ‘a positive condition of all metaphysical thought worthy of the name’’ (Existentialist Thought: 193).
	www.dur.ac.uk /postgraduate.english/feldma.htm (4582 words)

	Ochuk’s blog » Blog Archive » Soren Kierkegaard and the Concept of Despair
		Despair essentially means wanting to be rid of the self that is established.
		To despair over oneself, in despair to want to be rid of oneself, is the formula for all despair (bold emphasis mine).
		Therefore, faith, in Kierkegaard’s existential categories, was the very opposite of despair, or as we might say in laymen’s terms, "Trusting God for who and what you are." Kierkegaard’s philosophy is one of self-acceptance before God; the one who establishes the way you are and forgives what you have done.??
	www.ochuk.com /?p=385 (971 words)

	DESPAIR---CHAPTER 10 of OUR EXISTENTIAL PREDICAMENT by JAMES PARK
		We are all floating down the River of Despair, drifting toward death.
		This existential despair is not the loss of hope for this or that project,
		existential despair is the disclosure of total hopelessness.
	www.tc.umn.edu /~parkx032/XP253.html (1423 words)

	Having Free Will & Becoming a Whole Person
		Depersonalising experiences of abuse and neglect are of course quite commonplace, so legion and insidious that existential despair is often considered the fate of humankind and war inevitable.
		Existential identity—being homosexual or being heterosexual—is caused or predicted by a person’s gender identity.
		The absence of their experienced existential identity was causative of anxiety, not gender identity, not sexual identity, and not even the fear and hurt of social ridicule and scorn.
	home.it.net.au /~kevfrank/freewill.htm (7602 words)

	A MATERIALIST NOTION OF SOUL AND SPIRITUALITY / Essays for Independent Thinkers by Charles D. Hayes, Autodidactic Press (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		Rather, self is a synthesis, and despair is but a misrelating of synthesis, a sickness of the spirit.
		Our deepest anxiety and despair as human beings mostly exists at a subconscious level: it’s a wretchedness Kierkegaard described as despair unaware that it is despair and as such is the fuel that drives contempt.
		The new century and new millenium we embrace represent arbitrary points in a history written in existential angst and despair by populations who have remained unaware of their own deepest motivation.
	www.autodidactic.com /essays/materialist.htm (929 words)

	Reynolds
		This sickness is despair (later identified as sin) that issues from a fear of conscious selfhood, particularly before God.
		Despair is intensified when one loses hope that it is really possible to be free from despair and grounded in proper relationship with God, because even though one might lose this hope, it is impossible, for Kierkegaard, to get rid of the essential passion to know and rest in God.
		It is also interesting to note that the second kind of conscious despair, “despair of willingly despairingly to be oneself,” is the place of crisis: we either recognize our utter dependence on God and are delivered, or we defiantly rejection everything that is Christian.
	www.fordham.edu /philosophy/fps/conference/2002/papers/reynolds.htm (4952 words)

	Existential Christianity
		The despair is less intense since he is ignorant of it, and yet the despair is further from salvation compared to despair that is aware of its eternal/temporal synthesis and conscious of its responsibility towards God.
		Of course, the Pharisees were not righteous, they were still in despair despite being completely oblivious to it, but by being ignorant of the sickness they necessarily had to be ignorant of the cure (which was one of the reasons Jesus got crucified in the end).
		This despair is founded on either the sin of defiance (actively opposing faith) or the sin of weakness (not being able to choose faith through the will’s weakness).
	existentialchristianity.blogspot.com (7322 words)

	Guardian \| Master plan
		Realising they should have gone right, they doubled back and finally arrived in the central room of the museum where their iconic target was hung.
		The Scream by Edvard Munch is a symbol of Expressionist angst, showing an individual on a bridge, hands clasped around their head and mouth wide open, howling despair at the viewer.
		One of the most famous paintings in the world, it is said to reflect Munch's existential despair after the early deaths of his mother and elder sister.
	www.guardian.co.uk /print/0,3858,5214046-110428,00.html (1535 words)

	ItalianAmericanWriters.com: Contemporary Italian American Writing - Alfredo de Palchi
		The free verses are crisp and use the historical present with urgency in a stream of meanderings which bring back theme upon theme, always punctuated with a hopelessly felt Kafkaesque sense of guilt and existential despair.
		Here again we meet with the existential despair of the poet who literally knew imprisonment and torture under both fascists and communists, finding dilemma at every turn.
		The poet has never overcome his existential despair, his nausea at the nothingness we are and become as we encounter ourselves full of appetite and morally imperfect.
	www.italianamericanwriters.com /dePalchi.html (2730 words)

	DESPAIR---"Sinking into the River of Existential Despair" by James Leonard Park.
		But existential despair is the comprehensive loss of hope for existence.
		However, existential despair is not the last word.
		The push of existential despair is stronger than our hope for release.
	www.tc.umn.edu /~parkx032/CY-HOPE.html (1550 words)

	Francis Bacon: Portraits and Heads (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		The loss of faith in humanity in the late 1940s was such that the human image in art became increasingly difficult to portray.
		Images of the abyss, of loneliness and the inescapable suffering of human existence dominate the exhibition, and yet, the 50 paintings at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art stress the dialogue that existed between Bacon and his subjects, and the wider world.
		A quiet authority is established by the artist amid the shrieking pain; the curators have echoed this in the elegant hanging of the works and the subtle interconnection of the works within the whole exhibition.
	www.studio-international.co.uk /painting/bacon.htm (1747 words)

	Marco J. de Vries, MD, PhD - An Existential–Spiritual View of the Nature of Man
		Whenever this fundamental existential need is frustrated, man falls victim to existential despair, shame, guilt, fear and loneliness, which in its turn inevitably leads to self-destruction (such as drug abuse) and violence, either directed towards oneself, or others and the world.
		This particular type of transformation has to be distinguished from the process of existential transformation described in the previous paragraph.
		Man is subject to an ongoing natural evolution on the physical, emotional, mental, existential, relational and spiritual levels.
	home.hccnet.nl /mj.devries/Articles/BPS_Model.html (3692 words)

	Lev Shestov - Kierkegaard and the Existential Philosophy - Despair and Nothingness (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		Such was the "existential philosophy" of the Greeks from Socrates to Epictetus.
		For she, like Mynster and like Hegel, was not guided in life by the truth revealed by reason or the good that follows truth.
		Happiness is not spiritual; it is immediacy, and all immediacy, even though it may be accompanied by what seems to be complete serenity and unconcern, is fear, and, certainly, in large part, fear of Nothingness.
	www.angelfire.com /nb/shestov/sk/sk_18.html (2950 words)

	Salon Directory (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		This is, obviously, the very essence of existential despair, the constant awareness of mortality, the impossibly cumbersome insight into the lack of meaning so inherent in quotidian pursuits.
		As it happens, this is also a rather good description of clinical depression, the scourge of our age it would seem, and the reason why so many Americans are enriching the pharmaceutical industry by popping its happy pills.
		Reality changed our vantage point, and for two days an entire city was depressed, stunned into existential despair, wandering aimlessly through the ruins of its candyland.
	dir.salon.com /news/col/vincent/2001/09/18/plague/index.html?pn=2 (1807 words)

	existential psychology - Books, journals, articles @ The Questia Online Library
		of existentialism as a necessary...Freuds psychology is a compromise...
		existential concepts into an "existential psychology" (e.g., May, 1958, 1977...questions are founded on the existential psychology principle that "the agency...
		In an existential sense the dilemma of the inheritor is the dilemma of all...
	www.questia.com /search/existential-psychology (1240 words)

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