Weltschmerz: "World grief"

Even when it’s hard to do so, we’re capable of imagining a more ideal world.

Source: Smithsonian Open Access library

Weltschmerz (German)

You might be feeling disillusioned with the world right now. Your heart might be heavier, your spirit cloudier. There's a word for this feeling: weltschmerz. 

The word literally translates to “world pain” in German. It describes the mood that arises when you understand that the world is more cruel than you would like it to be. Joachim Whaley, a historian at the University of Cambridge describes it as, “pain suffered simultaneously both in the world and at the state of the world, with the sense that the two are linked.”

Encyclopedia Britannica details the origins of the word, describing weltschmerz as “the prevailing mood of melancholy and pessimism associated with the poets of the Romantic era that arose from their refusal or inability to adjust to those realities of the world that they saw as destructive of their right to subjectivity and personal freedom—a phenomenon thought to typify Romanticism.” As Quartz reported, the word’s usage has peaked during periods of war, conflict, and economic crises.

Over time, the word has shifted from a personal, introspective view to one more focused on the broader state of the world. But weltschmerz still prompt us to consider our own role in making the world a better place. “Weltschmerz is the sense both that one is personally inadequate and that one’s personal inadequacy reflects the inadequacy of the world generally,” Whaley said.

Some argue that weltschmerz is an idealistic, useless reaction to the cold, hard nature of reality. But weltschmerz isn’t easy. Cognitive dissonance emerges when you’re aware there are awful things happening in the world, yet you’re also able to stop by Trader Joe’s and pick up a carton of ice cream. How can life be so simple and indulgent while simultaneously brutal and cruel? One way to deal with this dissonance is to accept the cruelty—shrug your shoulders, say that's life, and desensitize yourself as much as one can desensitize themselves to these things. We all cope in different ways, and there's probably no right way of doing so. But it seems much harder to go about your daily life with a sense of weltschmerz.

Put another way, I find hope in the fact that a word exists to describe this feeling in the first place. It’s evidence that humanity has the capacity for something beyond the cruelties we observe. Even when it’s hard to do so, we’re capable of imagining a more ideal world. A world in which unfathomable suffering remains unfathomable.

From the archives

The Benefits of Talking to Yourself (the New York Times, 2017): The fairly common habit of talking aloud to yourself is what psychologists call external self-talk. And although self-talk is sometimes looked at as just an eccentric quirk, research has found that it can influence behavior and cognition.

What’s new?

• I enjoyed this piece on Jean-Michel Basquiat's Notes from NYC's Underground Art Scene.

• I came across the Smithsonian’s open-access library, which contains millions of the Smithsonian’s images — all free to use without permission.

• I went to Big Idea Weekend, a two-day retreat hosted by writers Ann Friedman and Jade Chang that involved shaping our existing creative ideas. It was illuminating and, well, awesome. If you ever feel stuck on a big idea, I highly recommend it.

 — Kristin