TEHRAN – “The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Oriented Deliberation in View of the Dogmatic Problem of Hereditary Sin” by Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard has been published in Persian.

Saleh Najafi is the translator of the book published by Markaz.

First published in 1844, Soren Kierkegaard’s concise treatise identified – long before Freud – anxiety as a profound human condition, portraying human existence largely as a constant struggle with our own spiritual identities. 

Brilliantly synthesizing human insights with Christian dogma, Kierkegaard presented “The Concept of Anxiety” as a landmark “psychological deliberation”, suggesting that our only hope in overcoming anxiety was not through “powder and pills” but by embracing it with open arms. 

While Kierkegaard’s Danish prose is surprisingly rich, previous translations – the most recent in 1980 – have marginalized the work with alternately florid or slavishly wooden language. 

With a vibrancy never seen before in English, Alastair Hannay, the world’s foremost Kierkegaard scholar, re-creates its natural rhythm, eager that this overlooked classic will not only become as celebrated as “Fear and Trembling”, “The Sickness unto Death” and “Either/Or” but also be revivified as the seminal work of existentialism and moral psychology that it is.

Photo: A combination photo shows Soren Kierkegaard and the front cover of the Persian edition of his book “The Concept of Anxiety”.

MMS/YAW