How does Sickness unto Death discuss despair and the self?

In Sickness unto Death, Søren Kierkegaard explores the nature of the self and the profound existential crisis of despair. For Kierkegaard, the human self is not a static entity but a task—a process of becoming that requires the individual to relate themselves to their own existence and, ultimately, to God.12

Despair arises when this process of becoming a self is obstructed or misdirected. Kierkegaard characterizes despair as a "sickness" because it represents a failure to achieve the authentic selfhood that is the highest human task. The two halves of the work are often read as reprising the two modes of religious subjectivity:2

• Religiousness A: Focuses on the inward task of the individual relating themselves to the absolute, often characterized by a sense of Socratic ignorance regarding one's own nature.1
• Religiousness B: Represents the specifically Christian dimension, where the individual faces the paradox of the eternal entering time, making the task of becoming a self even more strenuous.1

Ultimately, despair is the state of being disconnected from the true self, which can only be realized through a committed, inward relationship with the divine.12