Dependence and its Discontents: Kierkegaard on being Sustained by Another

Schema for a Relational Self The author of Sickness Unto Death has no use for a picture of 'the self' as a thing or as a natural kind, or as a pinpoint of consciousness, or as a site of decision and will. Is it reckless to seek unbounded freedom? I have desires that my desires be in worthy configuration. [...]the self relates to itself.4 The third story of the self-structure can be pictured as a clearstory or transom from which light shines on everything else. Focusing on local assemblages of meaning and practice-lab work, model building, and so forth-frees them from the need to establish as a condition of local practice the necessary existence of a reified 'Science' or 'Scientific Method.'32 There might be occasions to invoke such an entity commanding the devotion of masters and apprentices, perhaps in the service of rewarding the good or punishing the cheaters.33 But such occasions would be ceremonial and would be the exception.