Anguish is consciousness of being one’s own future in the mode of not-being

Evidence

Yet as I am already what I will be (otherwise I would not be interested in any one being more than another), I am the self which I will be, in the mode of not being it. It is through my horror that I am carried toward the future, and the horror nihilates itself in that it constitutes the future as possible. Anguish is precisely my consciousness of being my own future, in the mode of not-being. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 239

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines anguish (angoisse) as consciousness of being one’s own future in the mode of not-being — a core ontological term for the foundational reading.
• XREF: Directly sets up Beauvoir’s treatment of freedom and the future in The Ethics of Ambiguity and her existentialist ethics. — connects to: Anguish reveals the double nihilation that suspends the world in nothingness — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 213; Anguish is fear of oneself while fear targets beings in the world — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 236; Anguish before freedom and anguish before nothingness describe the same phenomenon. (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Distraction is consciousness fleeing anguish by disowning its own possibilities #expands (0.95) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1473
• Anguish arises because the self’s future identity is never guaranteed #expands (0.92) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 454
• Existentialist anxiety is the vertigo of realizing one’s own freedom #expands (0.90) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 61
• Anguish arises when consciousness sees itself cut from its essence by nothingness #expands (0.86) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 246
• Anguish and responsibility are the felt consciousness of self-choice. #expands (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1118