Kierkegaard’s Construction of the Human Self

The purpose of this article is to analyze Kierkegaard’s philosophical views concerning the problem of the nature of the human self. With the help of a close examination of Kierkegaard’s texts The Concept of Anxiety and The Sickness unto Death, we argue that Kierkegaard “constructs” the human self in a specific way. This way reveals, through the examination by Kierkegaard of “anxiety” and “despair,” three main characteristics of the human self: a) the self is a dynamic process, always “becoming” in time through free will and freedom of choice, b) the human self is always a historical self, so that history is then a direct product of “becoming a self,” and c) the human self, in order to be “whole,” must freely ground itself in a transcendental being (God).