child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim believed that fairy tales help children cope with their existential anxieties and dilemmas
Recent Examples on the WebRosemont is home to conventions on animé and comic books and horror films and tattoos and campers and fitness instructors, but also on occasion, the truly existential. Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 16 Sep. 2022 Additionally, the team says that the threat of AI is building based on an existential catastrophe. Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 15 Sep. 2022 Although Chinese state media have echoed Russian propaganda in recent months, there is much that China has not done to support Russia in the war and its conflict with the West — confrontations that Putin describes as existential for his country. Keith Bradsher, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Sep. 2022 The firm is a classic example of a Mittelstand mid-sized family business, a category that forms the backbone of the economy in Germany—a country that’s racing to respond to both rapid climate change and an existential energy crisis. David Meyer, Fortune, 14 Sep. 2022 Suddenly, the Moth is trapped in an existential despair. Conan O'brien, Washington Post, 14 Sep. 2022 Readers on the lookout for confirmation of radical, existential doubt and fans of the avant-garde thrilled by the instability of language should pluck books from a different shelf. Adam Begley, The Atlantic, 9 Sep. 2022 As Pac-12 teams prepare for Week Two, the existential clock approaches zero hour.oregonlive, 8 Sep. 2022 It’s like The Tree of Life in lipstick: glossy, but existential and ambitious. Douglas Greenwood, Vogue, 8 Sep. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Late Latin existentiālis, exsistentiālis, from existentia, exsistentiaexistence + Latin -ālis-al entry 1; in the 19th and 20th centuries in part as translation of Danish existentiel (later eksistentiel) & German existentiell
Note: Compare "Existentielt Indlæg" ("existential contribution") in the subtitle of Søren Kierkegaard's Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift til de philosophiske Smuler (1846; Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments), used also elsewhere in the work.