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[[Image:The Scream.jpg|thumb|right|[[The Scream]] (1893) by [[Edvard Munch]].]]
'''''Angst''''' or '''''anguish''''' is a [[Germanic_languages|Germanic]] word for [[fear]] or [[anxiety]]. It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of emotional strife. In German, it is the fear of possible suffering and a behavior resulting from uncertainty and strain which is caused by [[pain]], [[loss]], and [[death]]. The term ''Angst'' distinguishes itself from the word ''Furcht'' ([[German language|German]] for "fear") in that ''Furcht'' usually refers to a material threat (arranged fear), while Angst is usually a nondirectional emotion.

In other languages having the meaning of the Latin word ''anxietas'' and ''pavor'', the derived words differ in meaning, e.g as in the French ''anxieté'' and ''peur''.

The word ''Angst'' has existed since the 8th century, coming from the base-[[Indo European language|Indoeuropean]] ''*anghu-'', "restraint" from which [[Old High German]] ''angust'' develops. It is pre-cognate with the Latin ''angustia'', "tensity, tightness" and ''angor'', "choking, clogging"; compare to the Greek "άγχος" (ankhos): stress.

A different but related meaning is attributed to [[Denmark|Danish]] philosopher [[Søren Kierkegaard]] ([[1813]]–[[1855]]). In ''[[The Concept of Anxiety]]'', Kierkegaard used the word ''Angest'' (Danish, meaning "dread") to describe a profound and deep-seated [[spirituality|spiritual]] condition of insecurity and [[despair]] in the free [[human being]]. Where the animal is a slave to its instincts but always confident in its own actions, Kierkegaard believed that the freedom given to mankind leaves the human in a constant fear of failing its responsibilities to [[God]]. Kierkegaard's concept of angst is considered to be an important stepping stone for 20th-century [[existentialism]]. While Kierkegaard's feeling of angst is fear of actual responsibility to [[god (monotheism)|God]], in modern use, angst is broadened to include general frustration associated with the conflict between actual responsibilities to self, one's principles, and others (possibly including God). Still, the angst in alternative music may be more accessible to more audiences than [[existentialism]]. The term "angst" is now widely used as a theme by many great modern writers. Often, the expression is used as a common adolescent experience of [[malaise]], as in [[J.D. Salinger]]'s novel ''[[The Catcher in the Rye]]''; in this sense it has become one of the central themes in modern fiction.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}

=="Teenage angst" and popular music==
Angst, in contemporary connotative use, most often describes the intense frustration and other related emotions of [[teenager]]s and the mood of the music and art with which they identify. [[Punk rock]], [[grunge]], [[nu metal]], [[emo]] and virtually any [[alternative rock]] dramatically combining elements of discord, [[melancholy]] and excitement may be said to express angst.

Angst was probably first discussed in relation to contemporary music in the mid to late 1950s in relation to music favoured by people influenced by the campaign for nuclear disarmament, especially jazz and folk. Songs like [[Bob Dylan]]'s 1963 ''[[Masters of War]]'' and ''[[A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall]]'' articulated the dread caused by the threat of nuclear extinction. A key text is [[Jeff Nuttall]]'s book ''[[Bomb Culture]]'' (1968) which traced this pervasive theme in popular culture back to [[Hiroshima]].

In the 1980s "teen angst" was expressed in music to a certain extent in the rise of punk, [[post punk]], and [[alternative music]] with which it is currently more associated. It was probably first used in reference to the grunge movement and the band [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]]. Nirvana themselves seem to have been aware of this, as evidenced by the first line of "[[Serve the Servants]]" in which [[Kurt Cobain]] describes the success of writing songs dealing with the subject (''Teenage angst has paid off well | Now I'm bored and old...'').

==See also==
*[[Social alienation|Alienation]]
*[[Byronic hero]], an archetypal "rebel" in literature, described by [[Byron]] in 1812, with attitudes similar to those with angst in modernity.
*[[Weltschmerz]]
*[[Fear of death]]
*[[Terror management theory]]
*[[Dutch Language|Angstschreeuw]]

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[[Category:German loanwords]]
[[Category:Emotion]]

[[ceb:Angoisse]]
[[de:Angst]]
[[es:Angst]]
[[fr:Angoisse]]
[[io:Angoro]]
[[it:Angoscia]]