sickness unto death

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Personal despair over the disquieting circumstances of human existence.

   • Kafka's illnesses are more existential than physical; they are like Kierkegaard's "sickness unto death."
2. 2

   Despair, profound discontent, or a similar persistent debilitating malaise of the mind,…

   Despair, profound discontent, or a similar persistent debilitating malaise of the mind, spirit, or soul that produces a decline in mental, physical, or societal health and that may culminate in death or dissolution.

   • These films . . . are evidence of a deep cultural malaise. The need to make them and the desire to consume them are symptoms of a contemporary sickness unto death.
   • [O]ur "high" or "academic" or "avant-garde" culture is in a state of crisis. This crisis is not a healthy one, but a sickness unto death, a decadence that threatens to destroy our society.

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