In recent years, conversations around mental health have become more open — and rightly so. We’re finally recognising the importance of caring for the mind, just as we care for the body. Diagnoses like anxiety, depression, and trauma have helped many people make sense of their pain and seek support. But Søren Kierkegaard, writing in the 19th century, would likely urge us to pause and ask: Are we just our diagnoses? Or is there something more to the human experience — something deeper, more mysterious, more spiritual?
In The Sickness Unto Death, Kierkegaard introduces a different language — not of disorders, but of despair. And his idea of despair goes beyond psychology, offering a powerful reminder that we are not just minds, but souls.
Labels Help — But They’re Not the Whole Story
There’s no denying the usefulness of diagnostic labels. They can bring clarity, validation, and access to treatment. But there’s a risk in thinking that a label explains everything about us. When we reduce the complexity of a person to a condition — “I am anxious,” “She is bipolar,” “They’re depressed” — we sometimes miss the full picture.
Kierkegaard challenges this reduction. For him, despair is not simply a mental or emotional state — it’s a spiritual one. It’s what happens when we become disconnected from our true selves, or when we refuse to become the self we were created to be.
Despair Is the Sickness of the Soul
In The Sickness Unto Death, Kierkegaard famously writes:
“Despair is the sickness unto death.”
He doesn’t mean physical death. He means a deeper death — the slow erosion of the self when we live out of alignment with our purpose, our truth, and ultimately, with God.
This kind of despair can look like depression, anxiety, burnout — but it isn’t always visible, and it can’t always be treated with medicine alone. It’s the ache of knowing there’s something more, and not knowing how to reach it.
You’re Not Broken — You’re Becoming
Modern mental health frameworks often assume the goal is to “fix” what’s wrong. But Kierkegaard’s approach is different. He sees struggle not as a defect, but as a part of the journey toward becoming a whole person — what he calls the “true self.”
Despair, in this view, isn’t something to eliminate immediately — it’s something to understand. To sit with. To wrestle through. It may even be the very thing that awakens the soul to its calling.
The Soul Can’t Be Measured — But It Matters
Kierkegaard lived long before brain scans and therapy apps. Yet his insights speak directly to today’s mental health crisis. He reminds us that behind every symptom, there is a self. Behind every low mood or panic spiral, there is a person asking, Who am I? Why am I here? What does it all mean?
These aren’t clinical questions — they’re existential ones. And we ignore them at our peril.
A More Compassionate Way Forward
Kierkegaard’s view doesn’t dismiss the importance of mental health support — in fact, it complements it. He simply offers a deeper layer: a way of thinking about the self that honours not just the mind and body, but the soul.
In a time when it’s easy to feel reduced to a diagnosis, Kierkegaard invites us to reclaim the mystery and meaning of being human.
💡 Looking to explore these ideas further? Discover Kierkegaard’s timeless reflections on despair, identity, and the spiritual self in The Sickness Unto Death: A Modern Translation for the 21st Century — an accessible, thought-provoking guide for anyone seeking more than a label.