Key Existential Concerns

The foundation of all human experience rests on, well, existing! Thus, life itself—the fundamental fact and experience of “being” in the world—is a paramount existential concern.

Aging, failing health, and other more traumatic close brushes with death represent an immediate and literal existential threat. Additionally, humans are able to comprehend the abstract concept of mortality—the awareness that we are impermanent. We know there will come a day when we will die, and a time when we no longer exist. Whether literal or more abstract, our rather sophisticated concepts of life and death are certain to have a profound impact on the way we think, feel, and behave.

Once we enter the world, we begin a life-long process of “becoming.” This is where existentialists often chime in with the maxim that “existence precedes essence.” What they mean is this: People can be good, and they can be cruel; they can be Muslims, and they can be Hindu; they can play heavy metal, and they can play jazz; and so on. But our existence isn’t predefined by the essential purpose to be good or evil, to be Muslim or Hindu, or to create bebop melodies or play head-banging guitar solos.

Instead, we humans first simply exist, and then each one of us spends the rest of our lives developing our unique essence. In other words, what lies ahead during our “being” is the process of “becoming” a person with an identity (e.g., jazz aficionado), culture (e.g., African American), and meaning and purpose in life. Understanding this process of becoming means better understanding the construction of self and identity, the way people fit into their social and cultural contexts, and the way people and cultures understand and navigate their perceived essence—what they might experience as their so-called “true selves.”

Another aspect of the core challenge of “becoming” stems from our capacity to appreciate choices that lie ahead of us and exercise some personal freedom about who to be and what to do.

The freedom to make decisions, however, occurs in the context of both culture and identity. Thus, the landscape of freedom quickly becomes complicated as our internalized beliefs, standards, and values are sometimes in concert with, and sometimes in conflict with, various external social and cultural pressures. Better understanding The Will, therefore, means learning more about how we self-regulate to exercise our freedoms in autonomous/self-determined ways, how we respond to external pressures, and how the responsibility for our freely-chosen behaviors impacts our moral judgments, emotional experiences (e.g., guilt, pride), societal behaviors, and even our willingness to exercise choice in the first place.

Isolation/connection is another key existential concern. Social connection and cooperation may be imperative for the healthy development of one’s self and cultural identities, and ultimately for one’s survival and reproductive possibilities. That may help explain why social distancing and isolation are often experienced as both emotionally and physically painful, and why we’re so motivated to maintain our close connections to our loved ones.

Further, each of us is experientially isolated—our phenomenological experience of the world is exclusively our own. Because we cannot assume another’s point of view and verify our subjective experiences, we can never be completely certain that our interpretations of truth and reality are entirely valid. Learning more about that existential isolation and personal uncertainty might help us better understand why we can sometimes feel “alone in a crowd”; why shared subjective experiences are so profoundly meaningful; and why we so often gravitate toward others with outwardly similar features (e.g., race, sex) or prefer to surround ourselves with like-minded people (e.g., church congregations) who might buoy our faith in our own subjective experiences, interpretations, and beliefs about the world.

Another core challenge in “being” and “becoming” is maintaining a sense of life’s meaning and purpose in life, in the face of a world that might otherwise seem chaotic or pointless.

As with other animals, we humans are able to make sense of apparent systematic patterns (meaningful relationships) between concrete objects and events in the world around us. But our sophisticated mental capacities allow us to engage in similar, though much more abstract, attempts to understand any systematic patterns—or systems of meaning—about ourselves and our place in the world. We ask ourselves, and sometimes each other, questions such as: “Why are we here?” “What’s the meaning of life?” “Does my existence have any purpose?”

Better understanding our perceptions of meaning and purpose in life means learning more about our motivation to perceive systematic patterns in the world; how we construct and maintain a sense of meaning in life; and how the development or identification of actionable goals within our meaning systems can give our lives a sense of purpose.

Another important area of the science of existential psychology is the study of religion and spirituality.

All of the key existential concerns mentioned above appear to play important roles in religious and spiritual experiences. Religious and spiritual beliefs and practices give significance to life, give meaning to suffering and adversity, and promise that death is actually not the end. They guide the cultural construction and ongoing development of self and identity. They provide perspectives on free will, articulate moral responsibilities for it, and often attempt to help guide it. They bring people together as congregations of like-minded believers promote social interactions and close relationships, and provide consensual validation of one’s own subjective experiences of truth and reality. And they promote the idea that the world is an orderly place with inherent meaning and often identify actionable goals, within that system of meaning, that help to give our lives direction and purpose.

Better understanding our religious and spiritual beliefs, experiences, and practices, means learning more about the role of such existential concerns, and whether any such influences might mean that religion and spirituality are the products of the sophisticated psychological conditions that characterize human existence.

Another important concern in “being” and “becoming” is the cultivation of personal growth, physical health, and mental well-being.

Matters of life and death can sometimes cause anxiety and dread. The challenges of freedom can sometimes arouse guilt and shame, or their weight can cause us to shy away from or abandon our responsibilities. We might sometimes find ourselves coping with inauthentic identities or a sense of cultural alienation, wondering “who am I, what am I doing?” or feeling like “I don’t even know who I am anymore.” Experiential isolation and the struggle for meaning in life can sometimes arouse feelings of personal uncertainty and crises of faith in the value and veracity of one’s way of life. It’s important for researchers to learn more about these experiences because they might stunt our personal development, undermine our physical health, or create problems for our mental well-being.

But it’s also possible to feel a deep sense of appreciation for life, in spite of—or even because of—the reality of death, and enthusiastically engage our lives with vitality, pleasure, and satisfaction. It’s also possible that successfully taking responsibility for our freedoms can motivate us to explore our environment, master new challenges, and integrate these experiences into a core sense of self. Authenticity and self-determination can promote confident and open-minded exploration of the world, fuel intrinsic motivation, and encourage personal development. Cultivating love, close relationships, and community can instill a sense of emotional warmth, belonging, and fulfilment. Our personal uncertainties, the uniqueness of our subjective experiences, or our appreciation of the vastness of the universe and the mystery of our place in it, can leave us struck with a deep sense of gratefulness, wonder, and awe.

Better understanding the role of existential concerns in our lives means learning more about how they might promote open-minded exploration of the world, creativity, and personal growth; how they might contribute to physical health; and how they might bolster mental well-being. How might our unique existential concerns, and our responses to them, help us to live the “good life”?