ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the phenomenon of nothingness by taking the turbulent life of a Danish man, Bob, as a point of departure. It draws on parts of Soren Kierkegaard's work, primarily the concepts of anxiety, fear, and nothingness and argues that the forces involved have "mutually transforming effects". The chapter also explores the following dimensions of nothingness: concrete nothingness, existential nothingness, nothingness as potential absence of normality, vacuum of nothingness, nothingness as rupture in life trajectories, and nothingness as rupture in conduct of life. When Bob met other positions and voices and began to interact with the psychologist, he began to move through existential nothingness, which means he was invited into a more normal world that affords humanity. In the process of being released from prison, Bob tried to direct himself toward a future as an active participant in society. Bob's experiences were both of a concrete, material kind and of a more existential nature.