In this article we will talk about the three types of anxiety defined by Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, according to him, this feeling is the result of a mental conflict.
Would it be like one? Of our energies, of an Id that needs certain things that it cannot achieve or satisfy, is also the result of these often hidden obsessions that generate unwarranted fears, even the persistent shadow of some deep traumas.
- In addition to the time since the creation of these early foundations of the psychoanalytic approach (around 1896).
- There is a fact that we cannot ignore.
- Leaving aside the controversial theories about libido and sexual repression.
- We must thank Freud for his determination.
- To cure what he called “neurotic anxiety.
- “.
“The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with 70% of its volume in the water. “Sigmund Freud?
While it is true that we are currently working on this dimension from many other approaches, the neurologist and father of psychoanalysis was one of the pioneers in exploring the unconscious phenomena of the human mind, so he realized from an early age that if there was a condition that affected humans too much, it was anxiety. Few states were so exhausting. Few situations have prevented people from controlling their own lives to date.
Freud has created the framework for many theories that we continue to develop today, for him anxiety was indisputably part of his personality theory, so he devoted a large work and a wide trajectory that was reflected in many of his publications. .
Anxiety, according to Sigmund Freud, comes from mental conflict
In the topographical model of Sigmund Freud’s personality, the Ego is the part of our being linked to reality, but this task is not always easy. Firstly because constant conflicts and frictions arise, disagreements with our deepest desires, with our instincts and also with certain unconscious facts. Second, all these negative unconscious dynamics often lead to certain mental disorders.
To talk about the types of anxiety according to Sigmund Freud is to refer to these psychic bodies that make up our mental processes, so, in addition to the Ego mentioned above, we have the Id, the psychic expression in which our instincts and desires are located. In addition, our occupied Ego must also face surmoi, the moral and idealistic body that exists, from this perspective, exists to judge us, to be the watchful and disciplinary ‘big brother’.
From all this clash of strength comes anxiety, a mental and emotional conflict that leads us to the situation that can lead to what Freud called neurotic and psychotic behaviors, now let’s look at the three types of anxiety that psychoanalysis introduced in its early years.
Among the three types of anxiety according to Sigmund Freud, one will identify more with the realistic, occurs as a reaction to a concrete, objective and above all real fact, there are fears that can appear in us at some point for a very specific reason : to encourage us to flee from what is bad for us, which damages our integrity and survival.
We all feel a realistic anxiety when we see fire, when someone approaches us violently. When a hurricane or any other event occurs where there is an objective risk.
Neurotic or secondary anxiety comes from anticipating facts or circumstances, we react to facts, thoughts and ideas that are only real in our minds, but that do not exist outside of it, in our environment, so, in the face of this fear derived from our psyche, we develop a series of defensive processes: nervousness, need to flee, uncontrollability.
Freud saw the origin of this kind of anguish in our own, in our frustrated desires, in our inhibited instincts, but eager to be satisfied in an ever-limited reality; also, in addition to these unconscious impulses, there are our fears. psychoanalysis, they are brought from childhood in the form of undated trauma, therefore, would it be contradictory moods that would take away the opportunity to be happy, to allow ours?I?you show up in an authentic and free way.
Perhaps, of the three types of anxieties, the one that generates the most strangeness is the one that refers to morality, so, to understand it, we will report some examples. Think of a child who, at one point, thinks he has disappointed his parents for not becoming what they wanted; also think of the employee who does not feel able to achieve the company’s goals.
This anguish, this anguish comes, according to psychoanalysis, from surmoi’s influence. It is the inner social world that we all have, where are our “duties”, our “unconscious obligations”?And fear or shame of failure or punishment in any form (discredit, disamor, dismissal, loneliness?).
In conclusion, it is true that the types of anxiety defined by Freud are well known, in addition to this personality architecture built on these three power games of Ego, Id and Surmoi, there is a basis that we continue to accept today: that of Mental Conflict Talking about anguish is to refer to an internal crisis, to a time when reality surpasses us , a time when the mind spins madly in directions we don’t even understand.
Calming it, giving it balance, control and meaning requires time and proper strategies, strategies that the therapeutic approaches we have today can offer us.