Talk:Existential crisis

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 15 September 2020 and 17 November 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Mrdavis789, Jlheller. Peer reviewers: Mjcorlew.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 21:01, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Despair?
Why does despair link here? I'd say despair is different from an existential crisis as such. At the very least, this article is lacking, particularly in the Kierkegaard department (which would invalidate the unsubstantiated claim that religious people do not feel despair) as well as in the Sartre department.Der Zeitgeist (talk) 12:32, 5 January 2009 (UTC)


 * More than five years later and this very trenchant observation has not been acted upon.TheCormac (talk) 16:04, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Fragment
I'm pretty sure this sentence is a fragment, but I am not sure how to revise it. "When a person is faced with the paradox of believing that their life is important on the one hand while at the same time perceiving that human existence itself is without meaning or purpose."

This article was obviously written by someone who did not even care enough to grammar check their work, much less take the care to present ideas clearly and accurately. I suggest the whole thing get deleted and rewritten by someone who is an expert on this subject. Minetruly (talk)

People in Africa do not have existential crisis
That's a crisis of non-existence... someone in a country where basic infections kill a quarter of the population is not experiencing existential crisis when they worry about dying.


 * of the average, you are probably right, This is a philosophical issue that might occur under the condition registered in the article. That said this does not mean people under harsh conditions do not ever experience existential thoughts. You can easily expand this idea to "People in Africa do not have music, DRM or advanced reaserch in biotechnology".
 * I hope you see my point now. -- Procrastinating@ talk2me 14:06, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

The plural of "crisis" is "crises." By the way, I am so appalled by the poorly written state of the article that instead of correcting ITS grammar and spelling, I'm correcting the grammar and spelling of its discussion page. Yes, it's that bad. Minetruly (talk)

Sources? NPOV?
"The essence of who one is and why one exists is believed to have not been defined before birth" WHAT? BY WHOM? I've cleaned that up, put soem more links and put the article for general clean up. -- Procrastinating@ talk2me 14:25, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

"The realization of one's own moratality"

Is this a spelling error? Instr 19:51, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Naturally. be bold. fix it.-- Procrastinating@ talk2me 20:15, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

citing references
Shouldn't that citation be at the top of the page? I think the "external links" area is fine without "citing its references or sources"...but that's just me. Filter1987 14:57, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry. WHAT? -- Procrastinating@ talk2me 14:08, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Solipsism
Can anyone include some specific information about a crisis where one worries about solipsism. Isn't this a symptom of certain mental illnesses such as dissociative identity disorder, schizophrenia or obsessive compulsive disorder?

"being happy is pursuing a superficial life"?
What? (under Handling existential crises, by 216.244.48.194) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.252.16.62 (talk) 19:26, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

"being happy is pursuing a superficial life"? -- Bullshit.

I'd just like to say, I'm loving the confusion that this article is causing by being poorly written. Minetruly (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 02:53, 11 April 2009 (UTC).

Religion
For some people, a typical resolution is believing in religion and its consoling, palliative supernatural explanations about the meaning and purpose of life.

I'm not religious myself, and this is clearly an unobjective viewpoint intended to admonish religious believers. Come on people. Weasel words... let's be objective about it, alright? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.25.101.144 (talk) 00:35, 12 October 2008 (UTC)

FACING AND CONFRONTING how bad this article is... so yeah this article really needs to explain the difference between casually thinking about the meaning of existence and "facing" it... it's just not helpful as it is IMO. a book on existential therapy might cover it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.145.10.142 (talk) 23:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
 * How about "Some people find solace in Religion." That's relatively neutral. --79.65.96.35 (talk) 20:13, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Poor grammar suggests the writer is not a reliable source of information?
I would have corrected the errors in this sentence...

This sudden appreciation that there is no afterlife and, moreover, the meaning and purpose of one's life is determined from within, not through a irrational narrative defined by others, inevitably leads to substantial personal growth, with the transition through this critical confrontation with the ‘existential’ world a necessary step of maturation

... if it weren't for the fact that the errors are a red flag that the writer did not take the time to review their statements and ensure that a well-written and accurate contribution had been made. This article seems to have been written quickly and with little thought.

I strongly encourage any expert on this subject to completely delete what has been written and create something new. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Minetruly (talk • contribs) 02:49, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Anti-religion info
Take a look at that...

"Non-existential belief systems, such as religion, astrology, and witchcraft, provide compact and logically irrefutable (i.e. tautological) explanations for human existence often invoking a man-made construct of one or more iterations of a supernatural being. A transition to the realization of the absence of fulfillment via religious faith is one avenue to trigger suffering associated with an existential crisis. This sudden appreciation that there is no afterlife and, moreover, the meaning and purpose of one's life is determined from within, not through a irrational narrative defined by others, inevitably leads to substantial personal growth, with the transition through this critical confrontation with the ‘existential’ world a necessary step of maturation"

The inexistence of supernatural beigns, itself, is a belief. You need to have faith that there is no afterlife, faith that there is no God. So, saying that leaving religion behind "inevitably leads to substantial personal growth, with the transition through this critical confrontation with the ‘existential’ world a necessary step of maturation" is an extremly anti-religion statement, and you're hearing that from a skeptic person who DOES NOT have a religion. This should be edited or deleted...

I can't speak for the original author but I read "non-Existential" in that quote as meaning "Not rooted in the philosophy of Existentialism". I can however see that reading it as meaning "non-existent" is valid as well.

This however "This sudden appreciation that there is no afterlife" is definitely not a neutral point of view.--Redwulf25 ci (talk) 07:59, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Lolz
So I started reading some of it and then I got down to the distraction part if it, and then I was distracted, and then I became aware of the distraction and started reading, and decided to tell everyon it ( I was distracted again).

Self diagonisisisisis I have it oh noes lolz >_> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.17.212.38 (talk) 08:19, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

stop the bias
The following paragraph: "When a person faces the paradox of believing his or her life important, whilst perceiving that human existence is meaningless and without purpose a cognitive dissonance occurs, overcoming many innate psychological and cultural defense mechanisms. For many, a resolution to this crisis is the abandonment of previous religious beliefs in favor of a rational, non-superstitious relationship to the objective world just confronted, or a shift to a more naturalized belief system, such as Hinduism, Taoism and other variations of eastern thought that focus on the self and its relationships with the whole of existence, or Buddhism, which claims the non-existence of the self." needs to be completely revised. Do atheists, Hindus, Taoists, and Buddhists not also undergo existential crises? This seems to imply they are unique to Westerners brought up in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

69.235.48.57 (talk) 07:00, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

Derealization and Existential Crisis
Can derealization be a symptom of an existential crisis? Moreover, can an existential crisis be a symptom of derealization? Clearly there can be a connection between the two in some cases. --189.60.107.1 (talk) 23:30, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I know this is a symptom of both of mine. I get both usually around the same time (probably due to anxiety). Not sure if there is any scientific data to back this up.--Drdak (talk) 03:29, 25 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Try adding it as a see also link, in favour of future addition pending citations. ~ AH1 (discuss!) 16:43, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

inline citations might be very tough for an article of this nature. Meaning lie in the combination of words, not merely inline citations and words (Blake Peter (talk) 15:54, 25 June 2018 (UTC))

Having children and being part of a community
I think these are additional ways that people deal with existential crises, but it needs some reference.

Reproducing, being part of a community, even creating art and writing that may persist into future generations.. is the closest we can come to a kind of immortality and, though imperfect, may be a comfort to many. 75.72.185.4 (talk) 06:23, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Limited Definition of Existential Crisis
The definition currently reads,

"An existential crisis is a stage of development at which an individual questions the very foundations of his or her life: whether their life has any meaning, purpose or value."

This definition strikes me as being extremely limited, and far too abstract. Existentialism is defined as existence preceding essence, though in this definition of crisis, all that's being covered are secondary reflections on the purpose, meaning, etc. (e.g. essences), of human life. What about instances where crisis emerges for purely existential reasons (i.e. the very fact of being alive, or of existence)?

Existence itself without any secondary concern carries an enormous weight all on its own, and one that this article's definition seems to completely exclude. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.64.142.226 (talk) 04:30, 7 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Relatedly, "existential despair" redirects here but is hardly the same thing as what the article describes.173.77.192.104 (talk) 16:01, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

article looks biased
1.  why make this appear as "bad" or "not healthy"? the article discusses medical treatment.

2. "refocusing of energy away from negative outlets, toward positive ones." first, what 'energy' is he talking about? second, what is 'negative'? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.176.108.8 (talk) 01:37, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Existential crisis. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090518013943/http://www.fnds.cs.ru.nl:80/fndswiki/Theoretical_papers to http://www.fnds.cs.ru.nl/fndswiki/Theoretical_papers

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Description Section
after reading, i think this section is written very well. no need to correct (Blake Peter (talk) 13:04, 14 June 2018 (UTC))

Italicization
Vocabulary words don't need to be italicized, as they are now. Tyrone Madera (talk) 19:02, 31 January 2022 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure which terms you refer to. In the lead, for example, the term "later-life crisis" is italic because it is one of the main technical terms discussed in the corresponding section and the term "problem" is italic to emphasize the negative aspect, see MOS:EMPHASIS. Phlsph7 (talk) 06:04, 1 February 2022 (UTC)

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