Humankind’s Existential Crisis Amid COVID-19 Pandemic: A Theoretical Perspective
Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies · pp. 1–9 · Published 9 Aug 2021
10.9734/ajess/2021/v20i130474Abstract
An existential crisis (EC) is a situation in which an individual provokes a storm of dread about the meaning, purpose, or value of life, and is unpleasantly disturbed by a series of thoughts in their lives. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the EC on humankind has further increased across the world. Although scholars have studied the effects of EC on humans, there are limited studies of the pandemic that induces EC in humans. The most neglected area in past research has been the lack of integration between different disciplines to find better solutions for EC disease. This study aims to identify the main factors that influence people’s psychological stigma due to crisis and examine how the previous studies’ contributions, evaluations, and insights on EC are interrelated and biased. This is an independent article based on a literature review. It took more than two months to review entire articles. As the guiding framework of the study, death and meaninglessness, loneliness and social isolation, freedom, and authenticity are emphasized succinctly to deliberate on EC. The study shows the limitations in views and findings with the previous studies including the usage of the jargon related to CE. The experience of death, loneliness, and isolation amid the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t always alluring to many humankind as indicated in the study. Strong integration of psychology and Buddhism may offer the right solutions to overcome the EC during the pandemic. However, a large number of studies, seminars and conferences may need to be initiated by the respective academics and policy makers in order to advocate an integrated approach to the solutions for EC.
References (20)
- 1 The American Psychological Association [DOI]
- 2 Rapid Systematic Review: The Impact of Social Isolation and Loneliness on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in the Context of COVID-19 [DOI]
- 3 Understanding Emotion in Adolescents: A Review of Emotional Frequency, Intensity, Instability, and Clarity [DOI]
- 4 The effects of social isolation on well-being and life satisfaction during pandemic [DOI]
- 5 Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being [DOI]
- 6 Loneliness and Social Isolation During the COVID-19 Pandemic [DOI]
- 7 Existential loneliness and end-of-life care: A systematic review [DOI]
- 8 Existential Anxiety in Adolescents: Prevalence, Structure, Association with Psychological Symptoms and Identity Development [DOI]
- 9 Thinking about My Existence during COVID-19, I Feel Anxiety and Awe—The Mediating Role of Existential Anxiety and Life Satisfaction on the Relationship between PTSD Symptoms and Post-Traumatic Growth [DOI]
- 10 Isolation and mental health: thinking outside the box [DOI]
- 11 Existential Givens in the COVID-19 Crisis [DOI]
- 12 Getting out or remaining in the cage of inauthentic self: The meaning of existential challenges in patients' with cancer [DOI]
- 13 The existential way to recovery.
- 14 COMPONENTS OF EXISTENTIAL CRISIS: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS [DOI]
- 15 Educational Applications of Buddhist Meditations on Death [DOI]
- 16 On Marjorie Grene’s “Authenticity: An Existential Virtue” [DOI]
- 17 Existentialism and the Freedom Theme
- 18 The Art of Dying as the Art of Living: Exploring Buddhist Death Meditation as a Path to Human Flourishing
- 19 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [DOI]
- 20 An Investigation of Existential and Positive Psychological Resources in College Students
Cited by 14
Hatice Öner, Hülya Arslantaş, Nermin Koruklu · Journal of Community Health Nursing · 2022
Ankur Ranjan, Nguyen Van Thich · Journal of Dharma Studies · 2024
Michelle R. Ghoston, Salma O. Alwahibah, Asma Tawfik Alkusayer · The Journal of Humanistic Counseling · 2024
Yudia Yudia, Anton Sutandio · IJVCDC (Indonesian Journal of Visual Culture, Design, and Cinema) · 2022
Xi Zheng, Zhuoyang Li, Xinning Gui · Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · 2025
Khairunnisa Mohd Daud, Onaliza Satimin, Salina Sabri · International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences · 2022
Donny Syofyan · Jurnal Ceteris Paribus · 2024
Rachel Sing-Kiat Ting, Pei Hwa Goh, Esther Zhen-Mei Ong · Pastoral Psychology · 2023
Showing 8 of 14 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.
Article metrics
Real usage data collected on this platform.
39
Page views
0
PDF downloads
17
Outbound clicks
14
Citations
Views over time
Views by country
Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".
Traffic sources
Referring site, by host.
Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.