Introduction: The work of Anders Petersen

Depression, anxiety, grief, enduring Modernity in an age of voicelessness - the key themes Anders Petersen addressed in his work are closely interrelated. He was well aware of the dangers of the naturalizing methods of labelling which characterize positivist psy-sciences. Also, he was well aware of the importance of phenomenologically grounding the various patterns of social suffering manifesting as mental disorders. This introduction aims to overview Anders Petersen's philosophical inspirations, with a special emphasis on his interrelated work on depression, anxiety, disenfranchisement and grief. According to Petersen's diagnosis, the structural transformations of modernization result in a constellation wherein authentic existence is expected but hindered at the same time. The outcome of the negative dialectic in late modernity is an existential trap: not only the subjects suffer from the structural paradoxes, but the cause of their suffering is also veiled to them, which makes the horizon of change inaccessible. Besides further deepening the diagnoses of the times of contemporary civilization, the structural and phenomenological exploration of this existential paradox is one of the most important legacies of Anders Petersen.