Full Idea
For Kierkegaard anxiety is not simply a mood or an emotion that certain people experience at certain times, but a basic response to freedom that is part of the human condition.
Gist of Idea
Anxiety is not a passing mood, but a response to human freedom
Source
report of Søren Kierkegaard (The Concept of Dread (/Anxiety) [1844]) by Clare Carlisle - Kierkegaard: a guide for the perplexed 5
Book Reference
Carlisle,Clare: 'Kierkegaard: guide for the perplexed' [Continuum 2006], p.97
A Reaction
Outside of Christianity, this may be Kierkegaard's most influential idea - since existential individualism is floating around in the romantic movement. But the Byronic hero experiences a sort of anxiety. If you can't face anxiety, become a monk or nun.