Analysis Of Social Anxiety: Notes From The Underground

“Anxiety is part of life” (Myers and DeWall, 2014, p. 512). Anxiety is a symptom of a psychological disorder. Social anxiety is a disorder. Notes from the Underground (Dostoyevsky and Kentish, 2008) is a great representation of social anxiety. The narrator of this book has social anxiety. In order to understand what social anxiety is a definition is needed. One way social anxiety or social phobia can be defined is “shyness taken to the extreme” (Myers and Dewall, 2014, p. 514). A more clinical definition that is found on Socialanxietyinstitute.org is “social anxiety is the fear of interaction with other people that brings on self-consciousness, feelings of being negatively judged and evaluated, and as a result, leads to avoidance” (Richards,

Petersburg, Russia and is recounting times from is young adulthood in the 1840s and his current life in the 1860s. There are many events that happen in this book. Many of these events help signal to the reader that the narrator has a mental illness. One of these signs, in part two chapter one, is when the narrator admits that he is afraid of the people he works with (Dostoyevsky and Kentish, 2008). There are many key points in Notes from the Underground (Dostoyevsky & Kentish, 2008). The first example is when the narrator attempts to duel another person. This could be when the narrator is trying to prove to himself that he is like other males. The next example is when the narrator goes out with a group of acquaintances. This could be when the narrator is trying to prove to himself that he can go out to public places and that he can go out and socialize with other people. This, of course, ultimately failed. A third key point in the book is when the narrator befriends Liza and tries to save her from prostitution. This could be a sign of wanting to help another person. This plan also fails due to the next key point. The narrator after a short while of befriending Liza turns on her and becomes very cruel to her. This may be because the narrator either did not like sharing his space or was not comfortable with having to be social for a great amount of time. Ultimately this last example, of when the narrator becomes more self-isolated was