What Jean-Luc Godard Taught Me About My Current Existential Crisis

“The film Breathless explains why we must embrace our personal freedom. An existential crisis is our fear of total authenticity. It is a signal we must give up either a current routine, personal conception of pride, or the myriad of cultural attributes we use to describe ourselves. If we do not reconsider one of these variables (or all three), we can experience a debilitating fear we will never find meaning, purpose, or value. Existential crises are often linked to depression or negative speculations about the purpose of our current state of affairs. Despite the initial, seemingly weird feelings an existential crisis can summon, it can also prepare you for a significant psychological turning point. Questioning your place in the world can be a catalyst to reinvent your current circumstances for something more meaningful. Existential crises help us achieve a more vulnerable, less shameful self-concept. Our ability to cope with the present and positively prepare for the future is an inevitable part of how we perceive our identity. Recently, the most common phrase I say to anyone who will listen is, ‘I am having an existential crisis.’ The probing questions contributing to my crisis include, but (trust me) are not limited to: Why do I work here? What if Austin is not where I am meant to live? Is the future of our country scarred forever by sociopolitical self-interests? Is my spiritual practice working for me daily? And most appropriately, why are pickles called PICKLES!? The weighty emotional and, sometimes, complicated world issues contributing to my probing questions are all symptoms of a crisis which, according to the Depression Alliance, refers to the ‘moment when a person metaphorically hits the wall.’ During an existential crisis, everything may be too much or seem pointless. These philosophical musings can even manifest into concerning psychological health problems. Popular psychology sites like Healthline, Depression Alliance, and Talk Space state existential depression has the potential to be ‘all-encompassing anxiety about the meaning of our lives and choices. All-encompassing anxiety about the meaning of life’ is as broad, and overwhelming, as it sounds. Psychological symptoms of existential depression include anxiety and fear of freedom, responsibility, social connectedness, or feelings of isolation. Existentialism has its roots in many theological texts, but its most popular reckoning came before, during, and after World War II when philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Søren Kierkegaard began to magnify the significance of personal choice in a world healing from terrible violence. …”
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1960s: Days of Rage – Breathless – Jean-Luc Godard (1960)