An analysis of anxiety in the works of Martin Heidegger, Frantz Fanon, and Sigmund Freud: Integrative literature review

This paper analysed anxiety in the works of Martin Heidegger, Frantz Fanon, and Sigmund Freud from an integrative literature review perspective. Based on synthesised literature, it is established that while for Heidegger and Freud, anxiety means the natural indicator of a person living their authentic lifecycle, aware of their living and mortality towards their death with conviction and purpose, Fanon perceives anxiety as something all individuals inevitably experience as part of the actual reactions to everyday life challenges. Heidegger, Fanon, and Freud’s perspectives of anxiety define anxiety as freedom’s dizziness, that is, people learning to ultimately and correctly live with their anxieties. Heidegger, Freud, and Fanon endeavour to distinguish clearly between existential, neurotic, and normal anxiety to indicate that the misdiagnosis of “normal” anxiety as a disorder result in current concerns and irresponsibility in people’s actions and choices. Therefore, the paper recommends that psychologists in education and people with anxiety should understand that appreciating the inner stimuli as disturbing some basic and inherent equilibrium state in a person helps appreciate responses to anxiety stimuli.