Explain his reasons. Lecture on Sartre and William James on Freedom Sartre comments on Kierkeagaard's and Heidegger's views on anguish. Kierkegaard describes anguish as an apprehension of one's own freedom. Sartre says that this is correct. Anguish is a different experience from fear.
Fear is fear of something in the world, llke bombs.
But anguish is the emotional apprehension of myself, what I fear I might do or not do. Sartre gives the example of an army recruit. Heidegger describes anguish as the apprehension of nothingness. Whereas fear is fear of something definite in the world, anxiety or anguish is an all-embracing fear of nothing in the world and of everything, precisely because it is fear of one's own nothingness. As Sartre explains, anguish is consciousness of my future possibility, seeing it as dependent upon my own choice, not certain of my ability to realize that possibility.