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Core Themes of Existentialism: Freedom, Meaning, and Authenticity
Psychology of Personality · Chapter 10: Existential Theories of PersonalitySection 10.3 · lesson 62 of 83video coming soon
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In this lesson
Freedom, meaning and authenticity - and the anxiety that comes with all three.
- Explain why freedom and responsibility are inseparable
- Describe meaning as created rather than discovered
- Contrast authenticity with bad faith
- Say why existential anxiety is not a disorder
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Existential Theories of Personality
Core Themes of Existentialism
Someone stays for years in a career they dislike, and says the same sentence each time. I have no choice. In existential terms that sentence has a name. Bad faith. Not laziness, and not stupidity. A denial of freedom the person actually possesses. This section covers the three themes that make sense of that. Freedom, meaning, and authenticity. Along with the anxiety that all three of them generate.
Foundation
Radically Free, Within Limits
Freedom is the foundational theme of existential thought. Existentialists hold that human beings are radically free. Within the limits of their situation, people always choose how to respond. They choose what attitude to take. And they choose what meaning to assign to events. Notice how freedom is being described here. Not as a comfortable luxury, but as a condition. A fundamental, and sometimes burdensome, feature of existence. Burdensome for a specific reason. Because it cannot be escaped.
Not Absence
Freedom Is Not the Absence of Constraint
Existentialists are careful to distinguish freedom from the mere absence of constraint. The misreading is that freedom means we can do anything. That is not the claim, and the difference matters. We are always situated. Shaped by our bodies, our histories, and our circumstances. Freedom operates within those limits, rather than outside them. So the actual claim is narrower, and harder to escape. We always retain the power to choose our stance toward whatever we face. This carries a distinctive emotional weight. To accept that we are the authors of our responses is empowering, and sobering at once. Because it removes the comfort of blaming fate, or blaming others entirely.
The Cost
Freedom and Responsibility Are One Thing
Freedom is inseparable from responsibility. The two are really one idea. If we are the authors of our choices, then we are responsible for them. And responsible for the lives we build out of them. This responsibility can be daunting, and people often try to evade it. By pretending they have no choice. Or by blaming circumstances. The evasion is not stupidity. Responsibility is genuinely heavy. But existential theory treats owning it as non-negotiable. Owning one's freedom and responsibility is essential to authentic living, and to psychological maturity. The task is to hold a tension, without collapsing it either way. Neither denying our limits, nor surrendering our agency. Existential thinkers regard learning to hold that tension as a central task of mature personhood.
Second Theme
A Universe That Offers No Purpose
The second central theme is meaning. Existentialists observe that the universe offers no ready-made purpose. Meaning is not discovered like a fact. It is created, through how we live, what we commit to, and what we care about. The absence of inherent meaning cuts in two directions at once. It can provoke a sense of emptiness, or of absurdity. But it also opens the possibility of crafting a life that is genuinely significant. Which changes how distress is read. Psychological well-being depends heavily on whether a person experiences their life as meaningful. And distress often signals a crisis of meaning, rather than a malfunction.
Frankl
The Will to Meaning
Viktor Frankl pressed this furthest. He argued that the will to meaning is a primary human motivation. And that people can find purpose even in suffering, by choosing their response to it. Frankl's own account was forged in extreme suffering, which is what gives it force. Even when nearly everything can be taken from a person. The freedom to choose one's attitude remains. That claim did something important to the idea of meaning. It transformed it from an abstract ideal into a practical resource for endurance. And it continues to inform therapeutic work with people facing loss, illness, and adversity.
Where It Comes From
Meaning Points Outward
There is a common misunderstanding about where meaning comes from. In this view, meaning is rarely found through self-indulgence. It tends to emerge through commitment to something beyond oneself. Work. Relationships. Creative projects. Values. By investing ourselves in such commitments, we give shape and direction to our existence. An existence that has no predetermined purpose of its own. And the active, chosen character of that process is the whole point. Meaning that arrives without commitment is not what the existential account describes.
Third Theme
Authenticity, and Its Opposite
The third theme is authenticity. Authenticity means living in accordance with one's own freely chosen values. And honestly facing the realities of existence. The authentic person acknowledges their freedom, and accepts responsibility. And creates meaning, rather than passively conforming to external expectations. Its opposite is what Sartre called bad faith. Bad faith is the self-deception of denying one's own freedom. Pretending that one had no choice. Hiding behind social roles. Or treating oneself as a fixed object, rather than a choosing subject. And here is why bad faith is tempting rather than merely foolish. It works. It offers temporary relief from the anxiety of freedom. The cost is a diminished and dishonest life.
Common Error
Authenticity Is Not Intensity
One clarification, because authenticity is easy to romanticise. It should not be confused with constant intensity, or dramatic gestures. It is better understood as an honest, ongoing relationship with one's own freedom. One in which choices are owned, rather than disowned. And because circumstances continually change, authenticity is never finally achieved. It has to be renewed through each new decision. Which is why much existential growth is unglamorous. It consists of recognising evasions, and moving beyond them.
The Loop
Anxiety as the Price of Freedom
The four themes are not a list. They form a loop. Freedom means we must choose. Responsibility means the choice, and its consequences, are ours. That produces existential anxiety, because no authority guarantees we are right. And courage is what lets us bear the anxiety and choose anyway. Which returns us to freedom, now exercised rather than evaded. Notice where anxiety sits in that loop. It is not a break in the process. It is what the process feels like when it runs honestly.
Not Pathology
Why Removing It Is the Wrong Goal
So existential theory reframes a certain amount of anxiety as healthy, and even necessary. Existential anxiety arises directly from freedom, and from the awareness of possibility. We recognise that we must choose. That our choices matter. And that no external authority guarantees we are right. That produces a distinctive unease, and it intensifies at moments of significant decision. Now the failure mode. Attempting to eliminate that anxiety entirely undermines authenticity. Whether through bad faith, through distraction, or through conformity. The goal is not to be free of anxiety, but to develop the courage to bear it. Which invites a different question when unease arrives. Not, how do I remove this? But, what is this anxiety pointing toward? Often it is pointing at a choice that genuinely matters.
Consolidate
The Themes, and What They Demand
Bring the themes together as a set of demands. Freedom means we always choose our response. So we cannot escape choosing. Responsibility means we own our choices. So we are accountable for our life. Meaning is created rather than given. So we must craft significance ourselves. Authenticity means living by one's own values. It requires honesty and courage. And bad faith denies one's freedom. It buys relief, and delivers a diminished life. Return to the career example, because it is deliberately mundane. The person insisting they have no choice is in bad faith. The first step out is not resignation, and not a dramatic exit. It is recognising that they are in fact choosing, with real trade-offs attached.
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