Back in April 2021, psychologist Adam Grant put his finger on an enigma of the coronavirus pandemic. The health crisis had been dragging on for more than a year but there was light at the end of the tunnel—the terrible winter peak had passed, vaccines were being rolled out quickly, and the prospect of seeing family, hugging loved ones, and going on vacation was on the horizon. So why, Grant found himself asking, did we all feel so blah? In an article for The New York Times that quickly went viral, Grant explains that this sense of stagnation and emptiness he felt is called languishing. He describes it as “the neglected middle child of mental health”: we’re not depressed—we can still get out of bed in the morning, keep up with our responsibilities around the house, go to work—but neither are we flourishing, as psychologists term mental and physical well-being. For most people, languishing will just mean an This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-One Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 43 Paapa Essiedu The British stage star steps onto a new platform. Arts & Culture Issue 43 Amia Srinivasan Amia Srinivasan on the philosophy of sex. Arts & Culture Issue 43 David Erritzoe On the mind-bending potential of psychedelics. Arts & Culture Issue 43 Space Invaders Room dividers from a Roman studio. Arts & Culture Issue 43 Study: Tricks of the Mind The cognitive processing errors that shape us all. Arts & Culture Issue 43 Happy Medium In praise of average.
