Anmar Baitalmal

Suppose that I despair because I lose my job. Before losing it, everything seemed fine to me, but now everything is gloom and all seems lost. What this shows, according to Kierkegaard, is that I was in despair all along. Why? Because it shows that my idea of living well and being somebody was a function of my having a certain job. But to have such a thought is to fail to understand what it is to be a self, and thus necessarily entails that I have not been a self, and that in turn entails that I have been in despair all along. To despair is to lack a real self.