Filling the Silence

Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21461652
AutoresAnna Bortolan (0000-0002-6544-998X, Swansea University, autor correspondente)
Ano2026
Volume91
Fascículo5
Páginas2363-2383
Data de publicação2026-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoErkenntnis (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0165-0106 • E-ISSN: 1572-8420
EditoraSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s10670-025-00986-w
OpenAlexW4412766382
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas35

This paper aims to explore from a philosophical perspective the experience of silence in social anxiety. Moving from the account of lived silences in mood disorders developed by Degerman (2024a), I argue that while “imposed”, “depressed”, “unknowing”, and “peaceful” silences can all be experienced by those who are socially anxious, this condition is also associated with two distinct ways of perceiving silence that are not captured by Degerman’s taxonomy. More specifically, drawing also on the exploration of published first-person reports of this condition, I maintain that social anxiety may be accompanied by both a perceived inability to fill certain silences when one wants to do so, and a weakened sense of control over how silences are filled. I then proceed to outline how these dynamics may be rooted in forms of self-experience that are affectively laden and shape one’s sense of possibility when interacting with other people

Aesthetics · Anxiety · Art · Epistemology · Ontology · Silence · Social anxiety · Sociology · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology