What Is Status Anxiety?

A term coined by the philosopher and writer 'Alain De Botton'.

What is Status Anxiety? In his simplest definition: 'A concern about what others think of us'.
Whether we are judged a success or failure, a winner or a loser and a somebody or a nobody.

Alain describing this condition in his entertaining and amusing speech:

To elaborate, its a pernicious concern about ones status, our position on the ladder and not been able to conform to the ideals of success laid down by society.
Furthermore, a fear that we are about to fall to a lower rung of the social hierarchy and be consequently stripped of our dignity and respect.

Our position is crucial as our 'self-conception' is determined by how others treat us. To be the object of concern, to be recognized for your achievements, our presence would be acknowledged, to have our needs catered to and most importantly of all - to be 'loved'.

Alain expressed our 'ego' or 'self-conception' eloquently when he encouraged us to picture a 'leaking air balloon, forever requiring the helium of external love to remain inflated and vulnerable to the smallest pinprick of neglect'.

The Problem: Status is difficult to achieve and even harder to maintain.

To some, high status is considered to be 'the finest of earthly goods', I concur.