The Sickness Unto Death

1. Introduction

The Sickness Unto Death is a mid‑nineteenth‑century Christian‑existential treatise that analyzes despair as a “sickness of the spirit” more serious than bodily illness or physical death. Written under the pseudonym Anti‑Climacus, it proposes a distinctive account of the self as a dynamic relation and maintains that despair arises when this relation is distorted, especially in its dependence on God.

Anti‑Climacus describes the book as a “Christian psychological exposition for upbuilding and awakening,” signaling both its analytic and pastoral aims. It is often read as a key text in existential psychology, as well as in Christian theology and philosophy of religion.

Many commentators treat the book as a culmination of Kierkegaard’s concern with inwardness, subjectivity, and faith. It engages, explicitly and implicitly, with Hegelian philosophy, with established Lutheran Christianity in Denmark, and with broader questions about modern selfhood and alienation. Later existentialist and theological readers have drawn on its categories—especially despair, sin, and faith—while frequently detaching them from, or reinterpreting, their explicitly Christian framework.

2. Historical Context and Publication

Intellectual and Religious Setting

The work was published in Copenhagen in 1849, a period marked by Danish state Lutheranism and growing engagement with German idealism, especially Hegel. Kierkegaard’s authorship at this time had turned explicitly Christian and increasingly critical of what he saw as a complacent, culturally established church.

Scholars commonly emphasize two background tensions:

Place in Kierkegaard’s Authorship

The Sickness Unto Death follows Works of Love (1847) and precedes Practice in Christianity (1850), forming part of what many interpreters call the “late Christian” phase. It continues themes of love, sin, and inwardness while sharpening the psychological description of the self and despair.

Publication Details and Early Circulation

The book appeared under the pseudonym Anti‑Climacus with the publisher C.A. Reitzel. Contemporary evidence suggests a small, specialized readership, mostly educated Lutherans. It did not provoke major public controversy, in contrast to Kierkegaard’s polemical clashes with the satirical paper The Corsair or his later attack on the Danish church.

Although manuscript materials survive and inform modern critical editions, there is no indication of substantial textual censorship or official interference at the time of publication.

3. Author, Pseudonym, and Composition

Kierkegaard and the Figure of Anti‑Climacus

Though authored by Søren Kierkegaard, the book is formally presented as written by “Anti‑Climacus.” Kierkegaard’s journal entries indicate that Anti‑Climacus represents an ideal or “higher” Christian standpoint, in contrast to the pseudonym Johannes Climacus, who explores philosophical doubt.

Many interpreters argue that using Anti‑Climacus allows Kierkegaard to articulate a normatively “ideal” Christian selfhood while distinguishing it from his own concrete existence.

Composition Process

The work was composed around 1848–1849, during an intense period of writing. Drafts and notes preserved in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter (SKS, vol. 11) show a relatively coherent plan from the outset:

• Part I: analysis of self and despair in largely “psychological” terms
• Part II: theological reinterpretation of despair as sin

Researchers disagree on how directly the composition responds to specific events (such as the political revolutions of 1848), but many see it as emerging from Kierkegaard’s ongoing struggle with the Danish church and his own earlier pseudonymous authorship.

Authorial Self‑Positioning

In the preface, Anti‑Climacus presents himself as writing for those “concerned about their own salvation,” not for academic specialists. Scholars often note that this framing shapes the tone and structure of the book, which combines conceptual rigor with an insistent concern for the reader’s inward condition.

4. Structure and Organization of the Work

Overall Division

The book is organized into a Preface and two main parts, each with internal subsections:

Part I: The Self and Despair

Part I is subdivided:

• Part I, A: “The Self and the Concept of Despair”
  Explores what it means to say that a human being is spirit and a relation that relates itself to itself, established by God. Introduces despair as a misrelation within this structure.

• Part I, B: “Forms and Degrees of Despair”
  Develops a typology of despair, distinguishing unconscious, weak, and defiant variants, and examining how social roles and worldliness can conceal or intensify despair.

Part II: Despair as Sin

Part II re‑examines the previously outlined forms of despair as sin, emphasizing conscious opposition to God and exploring offense at Christianity, guilt, and the role of faith in overcoming despair.

Stylistic and Rhetorical Organization

The exposition alternates between:

• relatively systematic, almost scholastic formulations (definitions, distinctions, “theses”); and
• pastoral, exhortative passages directly addressing the reader.

Commentators often note that this dual structure—analytic and edifying—is central to the work’s design and to its function as both psychological description and religious appeal.

5. Central Arguments and Key Concepts

The Self as a Synthesis

A core argument concerns the definition of the self. Anti‑Climacus famously writes:

"

“A human being is spirit. But what is spirit? Spirit is the self.
But what is the self? The self is a relation that relates itself to itself…”

— Anti‑Climacus, The Sickness Unto Death, Part I, A

The self is described as a synthesis (or tension) of:

The relation must “rest” in the power that established it (God) to be properly itself.

Despair as Sickness of the Spirit

Despair is defined as a misrelation within this self:

• It may involve ignorance of having a self,
• refusal or weakness in becoming oneself,
• or defiant insistence on self‑creation apart from God.

The work argues that despair is universal in fallen humanity; only the person in faith is without despair.

Despair and Sin

Part II advances the thesis that in its most conscious and defiant form, despair is identical with sin—a willful refusal of dependence on God. This connects psychological states to theological categories such as guilt and offense.

Faith as Opposite of Despair

Faith is defined as the state in which the self “rests transparently in the power that established it”, accepting its synthesis and dependence. Proponents of theological readings emphasize this as the book’s culminating claim; more secular interpreters often focus instead on the underlying analysis of selfhood, alienation, and authenticity.

6. Legacy and Historical Significance

Influence on Theology and Philosophy

From the early 20th century, The Sickness Unto Death became central for dialectical theology and existentialism. Thinkers such as Karl Barth and Paul Tillich drew on its concepts of sin, despair, and faith; Martin Heidegger and later Jean‑Paul Sartre engaged, directly or indirectly, with its account of selfhood and authenticity, sometimes detaching it from its Christian framework.

Role in Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy

Existential and phenomenological psychologists have treated its notion of despair as a precursor to modern analyses of alienation, inauthenticity, and depression. While some clinicians adapt its language of self‑relation, others have criticized the identification of intense despair with sin as potentially moralizing psychological suffering.

Debates on Universality and Theological Framing

Scholars remain divided over whether the work’s analysis of the self has philosophical universality or is inseparable from Christian dogmatics. One line of interpretation foregrounds its structural account of selfhood and regards the appeal to God as one possible, context‑bound articulation; another insists that, for this text, genuine selfhood is essentially theological.

Despite ongoing debate, The Sickness Unto Death is widely regarded as a foundational text for understanding modern notions of the self, inwardness, and existential despair, and it continues to inform discussions across theology, philosophy, and psychotherapy.