Erich Fromm on Anxiety

“The experience of separateness arouses anxiety; it is, in-deed, the source of all anxiety. Being separate means being cut off, without any capacity to use my human powers. Hence to be separate means to be helpless, unable to grasp the world—things and people—actively; it means that the world can invade me without my ability to react. Thus, separateness is the source of intense anxiety. Beyond that, it arouses shame and the feeling of guilt.”
— Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving