This paper intends to develop a theoretical argument which is part of the framework used in the research project Phobility Aktiv. In this project technical solutions are developed which shall help persons with anxiety disorders to participate in the traffic system by using smartphone app technology and wearables. It is argued that anxieties can be analysed as a specific kind of disorder of individuals' systems of relevance (Schütz, 1970) to which I refer by Eric Voegelin's term 'derailment.'
According to Alfred Schütz, systems of relevances are grounded in a primordial anticipation of fear of death (fundamental anxiety) in which many interrelated systems of hopes and fears, chances and risks originate. Relevances have the function to overcome fundamental anxiety by attempts of mastery of the world, that is, by drafting projects of action and realizing them.
Three types of relevances can be distinguished: (1) topical relevance determines which elements within a field of consciousness are problematic (and deserve attention, the thematic kernel) and which are unproblematic and familiar; (2) interpretive relevance determines the meaning of what is within the thematic kernel; (3) motivational relevances reflect possible consequences of action. They determine how to act, but also the degree of planning intermediary steps to carry out a plan of action.
Under conditions of pathological anxiety, trust in the ability to overcome fundamental anxiety gets lost; insecurity and uncertainty prevail with the effect that systems of relevances derail. Signs of alarm located at the margins of awareness are put centre-stage (topical relevance); harmless situations are defined as being dangerous (interpretive relevances); intermediary-steps which are not even thought of under normal conditions, must be anticipated. The content of these systems of relevances is organized by the two problems of participation in traffic situations: maintaining territories of the self and constituting normal appearances of situations.

特集 慶應義塾大学とウィーン大学の間での社会学のグローバルな提携にむけて