Out with Inwardness!
Kierkegaard had taken on his character, had put aside all forms of indirect
communication, and would no longer tolerate inwardness, neither his own,
nor that of his culture, as a pretext for refraining from action. The very
images and metaphors Kierkegaard employed gave his campaign the stamp
of something like an exorcism of inwardness. Kierkegaard often depicted a
situation in which a festering or sick “internality” erupted into the outer
world, as, for example, in the article “Take an Emetic!” In this piece, Chris-
tendom is diagnosed as a disease with numerous internal symptoms such as
“a bad taste in the mouth, a coated tongue, chills and shivering,” for which
the physician usually prescribes an “emetic.” Kierkegaard prescribed the
same medicine: “Take an emetic. Come out of this halfway condition.”
Stronger and stronger doses help bring about a cure, placing the patient in
a sort of trance in which the terrors that had originally been a part of Chris-
tianity dramatically reassert themselves: “First, think for a moment about
what Christianity is, what it requires of a person, what sacrifices it de-
mands....Andthen make it clear—absolutely, vividly clear—to yourself
how disgusting it really is thatthisis supposed to be theChristianworship
of God: to spend a quiet hour during which a dramatically costumed man
steps forth and, striking a posture of terror, proclaims in stifled sobs that
there is an accounting in Eternity, that we are advancing toward giving an
accounting to Eternity;andthat we live in such a fashion that, outside of
this quiet hour, to disregard even so much as one or another conventional
consideration—much less to disregard considerations touching upon one’s
advancement in worldly matters, or one’s earthy advantages, or the views
of the elite—is of course something that would never occur to anyone, nor
of course, to the sermonic orator. And if anyone did do so he would be
punished by being declared some sort of madman. Think of living in such
a manner thatthisis supposed to be theChristianworship of God. Now,
doesn’t an emetic work?” If, contrary to expectations, the medicine does
not have the desired effect, the cure can be continued ad nauseam: “Well,
then, take an additional dose!” The point of this little tidbit—and the very
idea of healing—is to cast out the internality that has spread throughout
Christendom. “So let it do its work. And, next after God, give thanks to
Bishop Martensen for this extremely beneficial emetic.”
In the century since Sartre, nausea has become the great symbol of cul-
tural illness, and inThe Momentit was associated with an entire series of
illnesses: “Now it is obvious that it only takes one single person to infect