A Common Form of Feeling Lost in College: An Existential Crisis

There are more than ten million university students each year; this article addresses just one type of situation among them.

I. One basic direction in human life is the search for someone who can see, explain, ease, and resolve my pain

In our thinking, this takes the form of exploring, reading, and scrolling through apps. Psychologically, it takes the form of various (pathological) relationship patterns and psychological patterns. (Previous article: “Everyone Suffers: On ‘Deep Collapse and Deep Pain,’ Answering a Reader’s Question, ‘Why Has Fate Been So Unkind to Me in Particular?’”)

In the language of self psychology, these are the three major functions of selfobjects: (a. mirroring—being seen and recognized; b. idealization—connection with a calm, powerful, perfect source of strength; c. twinship/alter ego—a sense of basic similarity, shared existence, and connection with others. See the previous article, “Psychological Growth in East Asia: Psychological Boundaries, Selfobject Relations Theory, and Object Relations Theory.”)

Marx + Zhuangzi + psychology are enough to explain human suffering clearly. But many university students have a fatal karmic obstruction: petty-bourgeois elitism. Deep down, they do not consider themselves “ordinary people.” (Their thinking goes: “I’m no ordinary person, and I won’t become an ordinary worker either. I transcend class. I don’t have an inferiority complex—I’m actually rather conceited.”) Because their inner core is fragile and their sense of existence is in crisis, they have an even greater need for uniqueness and superiority as defense mechanisms to sustain their sense of existence.

Marx, Zhuangzi, and psychology all begin from the premise that human beings are limited, ordinary people. So, generally, after the age of 30, once people have taken a beating from society, recognized that they are ordinary, and developed a somewhat more mature and resilient inner core, they find it easier to learn from Zhuangzi and psychology.

II. Common issues university students face include:

1. Insecurity: finances, family of origin, social belonging, spiritual belonging, and so on;

1. Existential crises (I recommend Irvin Yalom), identity, confusion, loneliness, meaninglessness, freedom and responsibility, death; empty-heart syndrome;

1. A fragile self, a lack of agency, and a lack of deep relationships, practical engagement, and connection with truth, goodness, beauty, and unpretentious proletarians;

1. Psychological trauma and problems in intimate relationships; the most fundamental psychoanalytic issues of inferiority, conceit, narcissism, and self-hatred (Horney).

The solutions offered by Marx, Zhuangzi, and psychology (see the previous article, “Marx and Zhuangzi: A Philosophy for Ordinary People and Those Who Lie Flat”) are: psychological healing; treating petty-bourgeois malaise (social Darwinism, elitism, consumerism, alienation, opportunism, and so on); exploring the five elements of self-understanding—studies, career, social life, body, and mind; developing deep relationships (I recommend Wu Zhihong’s *Deep Relationships*); developing agency; exploring new experiences of object relations (Winnicott, Zeng Qifeng) and selfobject relations (Kohut); establishing a connection with the world’s unpretentious truth, goodness, beauty, and underlying patterns—working people, nature, and historical materialism; experiencing the harmonious coexistence of the self, others, and the world; experiencing the tranquility of one’s instinctual self and the unity of humanity and nature; rediscovering innate wholeness; and ceasing to seek fulfillment outside oneself.

(Previous articles: “Psychological Growth in East Asia: Psychological Boundaries, Selfobject Relations Theory, and Object Relations Theory,” and “Literature in Pinduoduo’s Review Sections and Healing at the Food Market.”)

Some students who feel less lost have a concrete foothold that allows them to feel their way forward, crossing the river by feeling for stones: 1. Children from ordinary neighborhood or small-business families identify with workers and small-business owners, spend their university years working and earning money, and transition smoothly into an occupation and the wider world after graduation. 2. Children facing crises in their families of origin use these as an opportunity to study psychology and examine the world and life. 3. Those whose families of origin provide love, resources, and support, and who have developed relatively good habits, foundations, and understanding from childhood. 4. Those in fields such as computer science, where employment prospects and learning pathways are relatively good and clear, the subject is engaging, and there is a relatively strong sense of identity. 5. Those who take the route of superiority: mathematics and physics competition students in science and engineering, students at prestigious universities in the humanities, and students at prestigious universities and business schools in business, among others—though this also brings associated and subsequent problems.

Addendum: For high school and university students, a system of thought does not arise from studying pure philosophy or theory. It is grounded in practical realities: one’s class, circumstances, psychological issues, major, career direction, and so on. These are its true roots. University education should still be grounded in general education and education for one’s discipline and profession. Previous article: “A General Education Reading List for Workers.”

III. Alienation in the external environment

Alienation in education, schools, and society; alienation in work and internships; alienation in relationships between people; and ideological confusion are also reasons university students struggle to receive profound, authentic responses that embody truth, goodness, and beauty. (Marx: *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*)

Humanism begins with everyone’s innate wholeness. Why, then, have people not developed fully? Because the external environment—the environments in which they first grew up, were educated, and entered a profession or industry—has not provided sufficient nourishment. (What Rogers calls a helping relationship; what Winnicott, in object relations theory, calls a holding environment; selfobject experiences in selfobject theory; what humanistic management calls management that cares for the heart; and what the Marxist psychologist Fromm discusses in *The Sane Society* and *The Art of Loving*.)

People therefore have two broad directions of development. The leftward direction uses Marxism and Zhuangzi’s philosophy to seek out, draw nourishment from, and establish a connection with unpretentious truth, goodness, and beauty within an alienated, impoverished external environment, nourishing the heart so that its innate wholeness can develop fully. The rightward direction is the reverse: becoming contaminated by toxic energies.

IV. This is also why existentialism must be combined with Marxism

The existentialist writings available to date are rooted in the petty bourgeoisie’s experience of existence in an alienated society, with Kafka’s *The Metamorphosis* as a typical example: individual alienation and alienation in relationships between people. They excel at describing suffering and making people identify with it—as seen in the popularity of Kafka, Camus, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and others—but are less adept at explaining it or offering directions toward solutions. The worldviews, outlooks on life, and values associated with them are therefore often despondent, regarding human nature as hopeless and holding that “hell is other people.” Their rejection and fear of proletarians intensify their rejection of society, making them prone to nihilism.

This is also what makes Irvin Yalom valuable; it is also why Nietzsche’s thought could be exploited by the far-right Nazis. Nietzsche’s “overman” is still understood today as an “elite,” rather than Marx’s “fully developed human being,” while the mediocre masses Nietzsche criticized are understood as “the masses, workers and peasants, the rabble,” rather than the more deeply alienated petty and very small bourgeoisie and upper classes. One could say that Lu Xun, who stood with labor and the left, provides the model for understanding Nietzsche.

The collective conditions of existence and existential crisis of Germany’s petty and very small bourgeoisie in the 1930s were the roots of the Nazi far right. See Fromm’s *Escape from Freedom*.

Marxism, meanwhile, enables people to recognize history’s spiral progress and the unpretentious truth, goodness, and beauty of proletarians and working people, who make up the overwhelming majority of the population. It allows people to establish a connection with the vast majority of unpretentious people and with the course of history. Likewise, Zhuangzi contains much profound social criticism, along with “positive” existential experiences of connection with people, nature, and the “Way.”

V. What follows an existential crisis combined with a fragile self

It often involves seeking fulfillment externally in the wrong directions. Common situations can be explained more clearly through “failure in selfobject development” in selfobject relations: when the three major functions fail to develop, people seek pathological selfobject functions:

1. Pathological mirroring: craving external recognition. Seeking cheap, pathological approval and praise. In extreme cases, becoming a compulsive contrarian or seeking attention.

1. Pathological idealization: idealizing others—dream men or women—while also being easily disillusioned. Idol worship and the worship of grand narratives, seeking a sense of strength and belonging in them.

In extreme cases, this leads to right-wing politics, populism, and Nazism. I recommend Fromm’s *Escape from Freedom*. This problem is also very serious in circles of Marxism enthusiasts. Previous article: “Two Attitudes toward Studying Marxism: Julien’s and Napoleon’s Dreams of Heroism VS the Awakened Ordinary Person.”

1. Pathological twinship/alter ego: seeking an infantile twin relationship and unlimited indulgence, failing to respect others’ boundaries; in extreme cases, siding with one’s own faction and attacking those who differ.

One common situation is that, on the one hand, someone believes that no one can explain their pain (while inwardly pleading, “Please, someone explain my pain”); on the other, they find a few sentences in obscure philosophies to sustain their sense of superiority: “See? Only these people can even begin to explain it. Ordinary people simply cannot understand.”

VI. After entering society, people continue to diverge leftward and rightward

Generally, after entering society, people discover conflicts between their framework of understanding and reality. They encounter these clashes in actual work, romantic relationships, and friendships (some become misogynistic after setbacks; see Chizuko Ueno’s *Misogyny*), take a beating from society, and gradually engage more deeply with practical realities. People continue to diverge leftward and rightward. Turning right is certainly a mainstream tendency among the petty and very small bourgeoisie, and signs of it can also be seen online.

The leftward direction involves accepting one’s identity as an ordinary person and a worker, discovering that proletarians are not unruly people from poor, backward places, and that the petty bourgeoisie and upper classes are, by comparison, alienated. One becomes more practical and unpretentious, using Marxism to sort through and rebuild one’s worldview, outlook on life, and values.

Practice → understanding → further practice. (Previous article: “A Brief Discussion of Building a Personal System of Thought.”)