A Glossary of Existential Terms

anguish (Kierkegaard) : a revelation of the possibilities which lie beyond one's constricted existence.
authenticity
dasein: being-in-the-world. Ideally, should be open to one's past and future as well as one's present.
daseinanalysis (Medard Boss): 1. trying to see what is in one's experience and describe it as accurately as possible. 2. Careful elucidation of the specific nature of human being-in- the world.
despair (also called the "sickness unto death" and "existential despair") A misrelationship with the self, a sickness of the spirit that can lead ultimately to the death of the spirit.
despair of spiritlessness (Kierkegaard)
despair of encapsulation (K)
despair of defiance (K)
engagement: being involved with something rather than studying it in a detached, indifferent, scholarly sort of way.
existential anxiety, or dread
existential choice
existential crisis
existential dilemma
passion (Kierkegaard): the quality of striving to come into being.

pathological symptoms: According to Boss, they are to be viewed as encroachments on and impairments of the free, open fulfillment of human existence.
phenomena: not the visible manifestations of an ultimate reality, but rather, they are reality.
risk: the condition of uncertainty surrounding the outcome of our choices.
spaciality of existence (Boss): not to be confused with phyusical space. Openness and clearness constitute the true nature of spatiality in the human world. I am more open to my distant friend and he is clearer to me than my neighbor is.
spiritlessness (Kierkegaard): To be unconscious that one has an inner self, and is a spiritual being.
temporality of existence (Boss): Time for. Time as experienced, rather than clock or calendar time. Time is having time for (or not having time for) doing something. "I have only a minute to spare," or "I'm going to spend a year sailing across the Pacific."
true heroism (Kierkegaard): a "daring to be entirely oneself, alone before God."
world-design (Ludwig Binswanger): the all-encompassing pattern of an individual's mode of being-in-the world. The borders of the design may be narrow and constricting or broad and expansive, open or closed, disclosed or concealed, light or dark.

the philosophy of existence: another term for existentialism
the "thrown" condition of humankind