Some existential theorists and practitioners (e.g., therapists) have argued for a positive kind of anxiety, vs. a destructive kind that paralyzes and kills us. My long interest in these discourses on anxiety (another word for fear)--is a troubled one, where I have critiques of the way the existentialists deal with fear and this binary. That said, you can check out this quote (from a brand new book by Schneider) on his viewpoint--short extract below:
[note: "Becker" is highlighted, as he is my favorite of the existentialists, and that is Ernest Becker--of whom, was the philosophical
thinker beneath the 1980's social psychology project of Terror Management Theory, the latter also well worth investigating if you
are at all interested to know more about "fear" in the social realm of behavior.]
[quote from p. 5, from Schneider, K. J. (2023). Life-enhancing anxiety: Key to a sane world. University Professors Press.]
Addendum:
Experiential Democracy Dialogue Videos
These videos are edits of workshops by Kirk Schneider that feature the Experiential Democracy Dialogue (EDD). The EDD has been developed by psychologist and author, Kirk Schneider, PhD and these are companion videos to The Depolarization of America: A Guidebook for Social Healing. These videos feature both demonstrations of the EDD and hands-on opportunities to try the Dialogue in a facilitated dyad with Kirk’s guidance.
Note: Schneider comes out of the humanistic-existential school of psychology/therapy, and his philosophical and practical orientation (from my listening to his talks and reading his work) is that "presence" and "hope" are the two main ingredients to success, as far as he is concerned, and the therapy research field is more or less confirming this thesis and proclamation. I am of course, not in total disagreement but I have strong reservations of such core ingredients, based on a different paradigm --I have argued for a long time that "hope" is needing to be replaced by "fearlessness" --a much longer conversation.
