Category Archives: Social Anxiety

12 Kafka Quotes that Explain Social Anxiety

Franz Kafka is often cited as a famous figure who suffered from social anxiety. Kafka was never officially diagnosed with social anxiety disorder during his lifetime, as such a diagnosis didn’t technically exist yet. The social anxiety speculation comes from Kafka’s personal diaries and letters. I’ve already written about the themes of social anxiety present in Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, but if you still have any doubts as to whether or not the author actually had social anxiety disorder, look no further than these following quotes of his. Continue reading →

Moving Across the Country

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There’s a reason I haven’t written many blog posts over the past month. I haven’t had much time to write during that time because I was moving. Not just moving across town, moving across the country. From New York to Los Angeles. Continue reading →

Social Anxiety in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

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Die Verwandlung a.k.a. The Metamorphosis a.k.a. The Transformation

by Franz Kafka

Published: 1915

Read the eBook for free: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5200 or Buy the Paperback

The Metamorphosis is a novella about Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who wakes up one day to find himself transforming into a giant insect. As his transformation progresses, Gregor locks himself in his room, quits his job, and isolates himself from his family and the rest of society. Gregor’s parents and sister are repulsed as he becomes less and less human and more and more insect-like, until finally in the end…

(SPOILER ALERT)

…he dies.

Based on Franz Kafka’s diaries and letters, scholars agree that the author suffered from depression and social anxiety throughout his life. The Metamorphosis could therefore be interpreted as Kafka’s way of writing about his mental state. With that in mind, could the “metamorphosis” in The Metamorphosis be a metaphor for someone developing social anxiety? (Talk about meta…) Continue reading →

Social Anxiety in Movies: The 40 Year-Old Virgin

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I first saw The 40 Year-Old Virgin when it came out in theaters in 2005— hard to believe it’s already been ten years. I remember laughing a lot and thought it was a funny comedy, but I didn’t think much more of it than that. The thing I remembered most about the movie was probably Steve Carell’s famous chest-waxing scene. Continue reading →