What is it about?
Most psychological approaches understand anxiety mainly as a problem, a symptom, or a reaction to stress and threat. This article argues that anxiety also has a deeper and specifically human dimension. Human beings are unique in that they can reflect on themselves, imagine different futures, become aware of possibilities, and recognize their own limitations and mortality. These abilities make anxiety unavoidable. Drawing on existential and phenomenological perspectives, the article suggests that anxiety is not simply something to eliminate. Instead, it may arise from the very structure of human existence itself. Understanding anxiety in this broader way can help us see it not only as a burden, but also as something connected to meaning, responsibility, personal growth, and becoming who we are.
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Why is it important?
Anxiety is increasingly common, yet it is often treated mainly as a symptom to reduce or remove. This article suggests that some forms of anxiety are not signs of disorder, but natural expressions of being human. Recognizing this distinction may help psychology and psychotherapy move beyond purely symptom-focused approaches and toward a more complete understanding of human experience. It may also help people relate to anxiety differently — not only as something to fight against, but as something that can reveal what matters most in life.
Perspectives
My personal motivation for this paper came from the feeling that contemporary psychology often understands anxiety primarily as a symptom, a dysfunction, or a problem to be reduced. While these perspectives are important, I felt that something deeply human was missing. My intention was not to create a completely new theory of anxiety, but rather to articulate more clearly something that has long been present in existential thought: that anxiety may arise from the very conditions inherent to human existence. Human beings are capable of self-awareness, imagination, responsibility, and confronting finitude. These capacities enrich our lives, but they also make us vulnerable in a unique way. For me, this work is part of a broader attempt to bring psychology closer to lived human experience and to ask whether some of our deepest forms of suffering should not only be understood as symptoms, but also as expressions of what it means to be human.
Dr. Florian A. Gebler
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Specifically Human Dimension of Anxiety: An Existential-Phenomenological Account Grounded in the Structure of Possible Existence, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, May 2026, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/00221678261430962.
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