Vulnerability and care – keys to an existential sustainable society?

Author: Tide Garnow

Vulnerability during adolescence 

Among adolescents, existential loneliness has been shown to be related to a sense of not belonging and of painfully realising being alone even when people are around (Garnow et al., 2022). Existential loneliness can thus be understood as a kind of vulnerability; a vulnerability that is linked to insights of being unique and therefore never being able to be fully understood; a vulnerability that arises when a person finds themselves in difficult and challenging situations. And this happens despite, or thanks to, the fact that the person has people around them (Yalom, 1980). Ricœur (2011) even claims that vulnerability is a constitutive part of what makes a person. Being human means being in relation to the world and to other people, and experiences of both loneliness and belongingness can thus arise. The adolescents in our research described that they did not want to appear weak and vulnerable, and therefore they put on a mask that hid their inner lives from others (Garnow et al., 2022). At the same time, they described a strong longing to share their innermost thoughts and feelings with another person. They were longing for care, belongingness, and identity. 

Adolescence – a place for identity creation

Adolescence can be understood as a specific time in life, or possibly a “place” in life where the search for and creation of identity is central. In the literature, there are different developmental theories focusing on what can be described as different stages of life; e.g., Erikson´s theory of psychological development (Erikson, 1977). According to Erikson, adolescence is a stage between the ages of 12 and 18 in which role confusion and searching for one’s own identity are core aspects. Adolescence can thus be understood as bound to specific ages. I believe that this has similarities with how place— a central concept of existential sustainability—can be described. According to Cresswell (2009), places are socially constructed and filled with meaning. Places are normative in the sense that they are linked to lived and reproduced experiences of being “in place” or “out of place”; i.e., what is appropriate versus inappropriate in that specific place. Places are related to power structures that make distinctions between those who belong and those who are excluded (Cresswell, 2009). Adolescence may also be described as a social construction, a category that differentiates adolescents from adults as well as from children (Garnow, 2021). It is related to different normative attributes filled with meaning, and several understandings and reproductions of what is appropriate and inappropriate when being an adolescent. 

However, descriptions of adolescence as an age-defined stage of life and a transition toward a fixed adulthood, have become questioned (Tyyskä & Côté, 2015). Nowadays, it may be difficult for adolescents to enter a stable job market and thus they do not reach what would be the “fixed point” of adulthood. The concepts of fixed life stages or transitions may, therefore, be difficult to use (Furlong, 2015). Furlong (2015) believes that the concept of process is more accurate because it more clearly points to the multiple and ongoing non-linear changes that constitute the life course. Similarly, places have previously been seen as bound and fixed, as well as connected to particular identities (Cresswell, 2009). However, this has been questioned e.g. by Massey (1995) who describes places as constituted by mobility, temporality, and heterogeneity, i.e. as routes rather than roots (Cresswell, 2009). Places can thus be described as constructed and open to change, and places’ identities are always uncertain and in the process of formation (Massey, 1995). 

Being lost and alienated in an accelerating world

Some questions thus arise: What happens with the adolescent’s formation of identity when the process is continuously ongoing and not clear and straight? Does this vague route reinforce the uncertainty of the present and the future self? Can it reinforce a sense of not belonging and thus experiences of existential loneliness? 

Today there are so many possibilities when growing up in the Global North. Various possibilities mean different options to choose between, and several identities to try to handle and achieve. Nowadays we seldom talk about one identity; we create several identities which are not rigid but constantly transformed in relation to others. Our study on existential loneliness among adolescents, showed that experiences of not belonging arouse during the search for paths and identity when trying to becoming an adult (Garnow et al., 2022) The adolescents described experiences of not knowing which way to choose when entering the adult world. They felt simultaneously both young and old, and they said it was scary to become an adult when not knowing what adulthood really means. Also, when peers’ and parents’ expectations and demands were conflicting, it was difficult to decide what to do. Questions arose connected to identity: Who am I? What do I want to do with my life? Feelings occurred of being lost, alienated, and ultimately alone in the world. 

Historically, adolescents had fewer paths to choose between when entering the adult world. Traditionally, adulthood meant getting an education, a job, a home, and a family. There was a normative “straight line” to walk (Ahmed, 2006); a strong sense of direction (Rosa, 2003). The personal identities were stable; it was common to follow the parents’ footsteps, and once one achieved a profession, one did not usually change it. 

Nowadays in the Global North, there a several options and possibilities to pursue different careers and identities during a lifetime. Rosa (2203) argues that it is difficult to tell which options are going to be valuable when the world is constantly changing. Time, or the pace of life, becomes central to the self-formation. In order to avoid losing valuable options, one may feel pressured to keep up with the changing world, because “standing still is equivalent to falling behind” (Rosa, 2003, p.11). In addition, a possible “higher life” after death is not in the foreground anymore. Nowadays, it is during our lifetime that we try to reach happiness and fulfilment. Rosa argues that “the acceleration of the pace of life represents the modern answer to the problem of finitude and death” (Rosa, 2003, p.13). We are surrounded by ideas of life fulfilment, which means realising as many options as possible in order to reach development and obtain a richness of experiences (Rosa, 2003). But the world has more to offer than a lifetime can hold, and by accelerating the pace of life we try to solve this. The countless possibilities in both professional and private life may be stressful and create a sense of directionless (Rosa, 2003). 

Becoming a person in relation to others

Creating an identity means becoming a person together with others, and when becoming a person, narrations are central. Narrations help us to create meaning (Rüsen, 2005), and when narrating our life stories we become persons (Ricœur, 1994). According to Ricœur, the self needs to be seen as a universalised self. The first, second and third persons are interwoven in the person's life story. There is thus a dialectic between "the otherness" and "the self". The person is created in, and in relation to, the context and other persons. The self is thus, according to Ricœur, not an existential category but is mediated by means of the hermeneutics of the self, i.e. the self arises through reflection and interpretation. Interpretation thus becomes crucial to create understanding for ourselves but also for creating understanding of others. This can also be understood as “…the Other is a part of myself” (Alcoff, 2006, p. 45). 

I believe that narrations are crucial for self-understanding and identity creation. When we create understanding of ourselves and of others, it can also lead to experiences of belonging. Perhaps the suffering is alleviated when we are reminded that the self includes otherness and that we then feel belonging? Studies have shown that when we share our experiences of existential loneliness with another person, we feel that we develop and grow as persons (Ettema et al. 2010). 

To be vulnerable and to be shown care

Becoming a person also involves showing vulnerability. “Becoming has to do with emptying out the self, opening it out to possible encounters with the ‘outside’” (Braidotti, 2006, p.145). The adolescents in our research narrated experiences of existential loneliness related to not having anyone to share their inner lives with (Garnow et al., 2022). These experiences were related to suffering and a longing to share with another person.  A question that may come up is whether our secularised society makes us feel alienated in the world. When we have no God to share our innermost lives with, do we become extra lonely and vulnerable? Is that why existential loneliness become so palpable? Maybe there is something in it, but also, maybe we just need to feel belongingness? Maybe we need to be heard by someone who is willing to listen? A person who is there, who shows us care, who can meet our innermost thoughts and feelings, who can make us feel less alone. Who can help us exist.

The adolescents in our research emphasised how painful existential loneliness was, but also the importance of experiencing it in order to develop as human beings. They saw the experiences of existential loneliness as important, but the suffering was hard to handle by themselves. They wanted to be shown care from another person who was willing to listen. 

Existential sustainability

Existential sustainability may be understood as closely linked to sustainable ethics and care, as well as to vulnerability. Care is, according to Braidotti (2006) a link between politics and morality. Braidotti (2006) argues that the ethics of sustainability are related to the ethics of care. Equal access to care is a prerequisite for a democratic sustainable society. In addition, compassion and empathy, which are concepts I believe are strongly related to care, have been argued to be important “inner resources for sustainability” (Ives et al., 2020). I wonder thus whether care may be the key to an existential sustainable society? Care involves human bodies and selves as well as the environment; we care for ourselves, for others and for the environment.  “… care is a situated and accountable practice” (Braidotti, 2006, p. 119). Ethics involves both acknowledging pain and working it through (Braidotti, 2006). In my words: acknowledging one’s vulnerability—e. g. experiences of existential loneliness during adolescence—and working it through with somebody who cares. 

Having the existential needs met is a prerequisite for developing and maintaining existential health, and caring for existential needs is important in the work to prevent mental illness (SKR, 2020). When we are given the opportunity to narrate our pain and our innermost experiences, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable in a kind of relational embrace. By doing so we become persons. Maybe this is one way of understanding existential sustainability? By showing vulnerability and by being cared for, we become persons; we create existential sustainability.

References

Ahmed, S. (2006). Queer phenomenology: orientations, objects, others. Duke University Press. 
Braidotti, R. (2006). Transpositions: on nomadic ethics. Polity. 

Cresswell, T. (2009). Place. In N. Thrift & R. Kitchin (Eds.), International encyclopedia of human geography (pp. 169-177). Elsevier. 

Erikson, E. H. (1977). Ungdomens identitetskriser [Identity, youth and crisis]. Natur och kultur. 

Furlong, A. (2015). Transitions, cultures and identities: what is youth studies? In D. Woodman & A. Bennett (Eds.), Youth cultures, transitions, and generations: bridging the gap in youth research. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Garnow, T. (2021). Kulturmöten: interkulturell omvårdnad med normkritiska perspektiv [Culture meetings: intercultural nursing with norm-critical perspectives].  Studentlitteratur. 

Garnow, T., Garmy, P., Edberg, A.-K., & Einberg, E.-L. (2022). Deeply lonely in the borderland between childhood and adulthood - Experiences of existential loneliness as narrated by adolescents. International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 17(1), 2132653. 

Ives, C. D., Freeth, R., & Fischer, J. (2020). Inside-out sustainability: The neglect of inner worlds. Ambio, 49(1), 208–217. 

Massey, D. (1995). Places and their pasts. History Workshop Journal (39), 182-192. 

Ricœur, P. (1994). Oneself as another. University of Chicago Press. 

Rosa, H. (2003). Social Acceleration: Ethical and Political Consequences of a Desynchronized High–Speed Society. Constellations: An International Journal of Critical & Democratic Theory, 10(1), 3-33. 

Rüsen, J. (2005). History: narration, interpretation, orientation. Berghahn Books. 

SKR. (2020). [Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions] Gemensam arbetsplan för delarena 1.4. Meningsskapande i en sekulär tid. Version 2 – September 2020 [Joint Work Plan for the Sub-arena 1.4. Meaning making in a Secular Age. Version 2 - September 2020]. 

Tyyskä, V., & Côté, J. (2015). Towards a non-normative youth studies? In P. Kelly & A. Kamp (Eds.), A critical youth studies for the 21st century. Brill. 

Yalom, I. D. (1980). Existential psychotherapy. Basic Books.