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Filling the Silence: Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety

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Erkenntnis

Swansea University Author: Anna Bortolan Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1007/s10670-025-00986-w

Abstract

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 b...

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Published in: Erkenntnis
ISSN: 0165-0106 1572-8420
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69618
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last_indexed 2025-08-01T14:32:38Z
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spelling 2025-07-31T12:14:26.4967067 v2 69618 2025-06-03 Filling the Silence: Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety 9931f2ee5e3c744a5af4b5668a6f0f8c 0000-0002-6544-998X Anna Bortolan Anna Bortolan true false 2025-06-03 SOSS 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. Journal Article Erkenntnis 0 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 0165-0106 1572-8420 Silence; Social Anxiety; Lived Experience; Self-Experience; Affective States 30 7 2025 2025-07-30 10.1007/s10670-025-00986-w COLLEGE NANME Social Sciences School COLLEGE CODE SOSS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript. 2025-07-31T12:14:26.4967067 2025-06-03T12:01:52.1626363 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations Anna Bortolan 0000-0002-6544-998X 1 69618__34885__1995ac5110884f62a43379598ddfab7a.pdf 69618.VoR.pdf 2025-07-31T12:11:38.7489250 Output 930871 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Filling the Silence: Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety
spellingShingle Filling the Silence: Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety
Anna Bortolan
title_short Filling the Silence: Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety
title_full Filling the Silence: Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety
title_fullStr Filling the Silence: Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety
title_full_unstemmed Filling the Silence: Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety
title_sort Filling the Silence: Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety
author_id_str_mv 9931f2ee5e3c744a5af4b5668a6f0f8c
author_id_fullname_str_mv 9931f2ee5e3c744a5af4b5668a6f0f8c_***_Anna Bortolan
author Anna Bortolan
author2 Anna Bortolan
format Journal article
container_title Erkenntnis
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publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 0165-0106
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doi_str_mv 10.1007/s10670-025-00986-w
publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations
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description 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.
published_date 2025-07-30T05:28:40Z
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