Sociology of Anxiety in the Context of Individualization

Abstract

Anxiety is considered as a social phenomenon. The founder of the sociological concept of anxiety can be considered E. Durkheim. The active study of the phenomenon of anxiety began under the influence of works by Z. Freud, who considered the alarm a reaction to the emergence of civilization and the complication of social structure. For modern society, the experience of anxiety is a characteristic feature. One of the social phenomena that activates anxiety experiences is the process of individualization. This process, on the one hand, reflects the modern society, provides an individual with opportunities for development, and on the other - generates alienation, loneliness and anxiety. Modern man is not ready to embody personal individualization, without the corresponding potential, social and psychological resources. The impossibility of individualization also becomes a factor in the formation and experience of anxiety. In addition, the modern society of risk forms a special individuality of a person, for which the features of fragmentation and fragmentation are characteristic. Anxiety is seen as a problem of society and culture, because it mediates the perception of the social situation as threatening to prevent it. In this context, anxiety is understood as a means by which a person can construct a clearer conception of a threatening situation.