Heideggerian Conscience as Placebo Effect in Auster’s Mr Vertigo: The Art of Life in the Face of Death

The voice of conscience, in Heideggerian existentialism, stands for humanity’sinherent potency to call himself into an authentic way of living. Heidegger, through thisconcept, calls us to acknowledge the range of our possibilities in life before death thanregret what we have already done. Since authentic living is a process than an end – nosalvation being possible in this world – being sensitive to the call is trying to be authenticthroughout life. As such, the call acts like taking placebos which keep us hopeful whilewe are in bad health, although there might be no cure. Paul Auster’s Mr Vertigo, beinga novel filled with existential themes, can be read to concretise the existential intonationof Heideggerian conscience, following Auster’s own existential outlook into the humancondition. This paper, by applying an interdisciplinary approach, thus reads Mr Vertigoin the light of Heidegger’s certain existential concepts and the implications they haveconcerning how our existential conscience has a placebo effect. As such, this paper is toargue that Auster’s Yehudi in Mr Vertigo plays the role of Walt’s voice of conscience tohelp him with an authentic life style, the novel meanwhile highlighting how the call ofconscience can help Heidegger’s “Dasein” with the infinity of possibilities it has beforedeath in a world determined by contingency.