Despair (sickness of the spirit) and divine forgiveness are decisive psychological and theological themes essential to both Søren Kierkegaard's relational vision of ‘the self before God’ and his own personal struggles with guilt and the consciousness of sin. Reading Kierkegaard as both a physician and a patient of this struggle, therefore, this article examines The Sickness unto Death (1849) as an attempt to resolve the sinful ‘self’ by integrating a psychological perspective on despair with a theology of the forgiveness of sins. It is suggested that by presenting this integrative notion of self-knowledge through the ‘higher’ Christian pseudonym of Anti-Climacus, Kierkegaard is indicting his own resistances to accepting divine forgiveness and thereby operating—via a ‘higher’ pastoral identity—as a physician to his own soul. By diagnosing the unconscious psychological and theological relationships between sin/forgiveness, offense, and human impossibility/divine possibility, Kierkegaard finally reveals faith—as a self-surrendering recognition of acceptance before the Holy Other—to be the key to unlocking the enigma of the self in despair.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CarlisleC. (2006). Kierkegaard: A guide for the perplexed.London; New York: Continuum.
2.
CarrC. (1973). Kierkegaard: On guilt. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 1, 3, 15–21.
3.
EriksonE. H. (1993). Young Man Luther: A study in psychoanalysis and history.New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
4.
EriksonE. H. (1972). Psychological reality and historical actuality. Insight and responsibility: Lectures on the ethical implications of psychoanalytical insight.New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
5.
FengerH. (1980). Kierkegaard, The myths and their origins: Studies in the Kierkegaardian papers and letter (G. C. Schoolfield, Trans.). New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
6.
GarffJ. (2005). Søren Kierkegaard: A biography (B. H. Kirmmse, Trans.). Princeton, N.J. and Oxford: Princeton University.
7.
HoareC. H. (2002). Erikson on development in adulthood: New insights from the unpublished papers.New York: Oxford University Press.
8.
KierkegaardS. (1941). For self-examination and judge for yourselves! and three discourses (W. Lowrie, Trans.). London: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1851)
9.
KierkegaardS. (1949). Either/or: A fragment of life, Volume one and two (D. F. Swenson and L. M. Swenson, Trans.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1843)
10.
KierkegaardS. (1951). The journals of Søren Kierkegaard – A selection (Alexander Dru, Ed. and Trans.). London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press.
11.
KierkegaardS. (1967-78). Søren Kierkegaard's journals and papers. (Volumes 1–7). (HongH. V., and HongE. H., Eds. and Trans.). Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press.
12.
KierkegaardS. (1968). Armed neutrality and an open letter, (HongH. V., and HongE. H., Eds. and Trans.). Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press. (Original work written 1849; published 1880).
13.
KierkegaardS. (1983). The sickness unto death (HongH. V., and HongE. H., Eds. and Trans.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1849).
14.
KierkegaardS. (1985). Philosophical fragments and Johannes Climacus (H. V. Hong and E. H. Hong, Eds. and Trans.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1844)
15.
KierkegaardS (1992). Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments. (HongH. V., and HongE. H., Eds. and Trans.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1846).
16.
KierkegaardS. (1995). Works of love (HongH. V., and HongE. H., Eds. and Trans.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1847)
17.
KilborneB. (1999). The disappearing who: Kierkegaard, shame, and the self. In AdamsonJ., and ClarkH. (Ed.), Scenes of shame: Psychoanalysis, shame, and writing (pp. 35–51). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
18.
LorrainT. (1997). Amatory cures for material dis-ease: A Kristevian reading of The Sickness unto Death. In. LéonC., and WalshS. (Ed.), Feminist Interpretations of Kierkegaard (pp. 307–327). University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.
19.
MagnussenR. (1942). Søren Kierkegaard set udefra and Det saerlige Kors.København: Munksgaard.
20.
PerkinsR. L. (1987). Introduction. In PerkinsR. L. (Ed.), International Kierkegaard commentary Volume 19: The Sickness unto Death (pp. 1–4). Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
21.
PerkinsR. L. (2004). Kierkegaard's Anti-Climacus in his social and political environment. In PerkinsR. L. (Ed.), International Kierkegaard Commentary Volume 20: Practice in Christianity (pp. 275–302). Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
22.
PodmoreS. D. (2006). The lightning and the earthquake: Kierkegaard on the Anfechtung of Luther. The Heythrop JournalXLVII, 562–578.
23.
PossenD. D. (2004). The works of Anti-Climacus. In PerkinsR. L. (Ed.), International Kierkegaard commentary Volume 20: Practice in Christianity (pp. 187–209). Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
24.
RamslandK. M. (1989). Engaging the immediate: Applying Kierkegaard's theory of indirect communication to the practice of psychotherapy.Lewisburg: Buckwell University Press / London & Toronto: Associated University Press.
25.
RamslandK. M. (1984–85). Engaging the immediate: Kierkegaard and psychotherapy. Review of Existential Psychology & Psychiatry, XIX, 2 & 3, 189–204.
26.
SartreJ.-P. (1989). Kierkegaard: The singular universal. In BloomH. (Ed.), Modern critical views: Søren Kierkegaard.New York and Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers. (Original work published 1972).
27.
SobosanJ. G. (1975). Kierkegaard and Jung on the self. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 3, 1 (1975), 31–35.
28.
SorajjakoolS. (2006). When sickness heals: The place of religious belief in healthcare.Philadelphia and London: Templeton Foundation Press.
29.
WatkinJ. (1998). Søren Kierkegaard's psychology of the self. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 17, 4, 362–373.
