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According to the father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, anxiety is something that is present in all people from the moment we are born. This is because when we are in our mother's womb, it can be said that we are safe, protected from any external element and situation, however when we are born, this changes radically.
In this Psychology-Online article, we are going to explain in detail the concept of anxiety in psychoanalysis, which consists of each of the types of anxiety according to Freud.
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- Anxiety about reality or objective
- Neurotic anxiety
- Moral anxiety
Anxiety in psychoanalysis
At the moment we are born, we are exposed to all kinds of situations and things that are around us, some of these being painful and overwhelming. Especially because as children we are quite helpless and we have been thrown into a world in which we do not really know what can happen and what kind of experiences we are going to have throughout our lives.
Our first encounter with anxiety is when, during the early stages of our life, our instincts and desires are not satisfied. From there, a certain fear begins to emerge that will generate negative emotions of fear and anxiety that another type of annoying or painful situation will happen to us again, regardless of the intensity.
Anxiety about reality or objective
This type of anxiety, as its name implies, is presented before an objective reality. It refers to when we feel anxious when faced with certain situations or objects that are tangible in reality because we can all see, hear and feel them. For example, when we are afraid because we are in the middle of a fire, when we are close to one or more wild animals, when an earthquake occurs, among many other situations where we are exposed to real danger.
This type of anxiety according to Sigmund Freud has a very important function in our life since thanks to it people can react to danger by causing our survival instinct to appear. If we did not feel this type of anxiety, when we were in danger we would not fear for our lives and we would not choose to take a certain action to try to protect ourselves, so we would not care whether or not to be safe and it would cost us more to make the decision for at least try.
Neurotic anxiety
This type of anxiety, which is very common and that almost all of us have, originates from a young age and refers to the Id and the impulses that arise instinctively. For example, when we are punished from childhood when we get angry and show our aggressive impulses or when we express a sexual impulse and parents or caregivers punish us by indicating that what we are expressing is inappropriate. From there our fears begin to arise, especially the consequences that our actions would have if we carry them out and that generates this type of anxiety.
So we unconsciously live with that fear of being punished for showing certain id-driven behaviors. This creates conflict for us because somehow to be socially accepted we have to learn to master certain basic impulses and carry out behaviors that lead us to obtain more satisfactory results. That is, in the event that I am angry with a person and my Id or my most primitive and basic impulses tell me that I should go directly to hit him, finally I decide to repress those impulses, put a stop and try to dialogue better with that person to reach an agreement or just yell at him but not hit him.
Moral anxiety
The Superego or Superego is the one that causes this type of anxiety according to Freud, this makes us feel guilty for not having done “the right thing”, because the Superego is the one in charge of letting us know and reminding us what is good and what is bad. In other words, our moral anxiety that is created by the Superego originates from what society dictates to us as to what we "should" and "should not" do. In the event that we are not complying with those mandates dictated by the Superego, we are going to feel extremely rejected and we may even tend to punish ourselves for not acting as we are supposed to.
For example, a person who has a sexual preference for people of the same sex, if he lives in a restrictive society that considers this fact as something extremely negative, if the person is not sufficiently prepared to deal with this situation, he can reach experiencing this type of anxiety and feeling that you are breaking the rules that have been imposed on you. You can feel a lot of guilt and you can even punish yourself by deciding to get better involved with people of the opposite sex even if it is not really what you want. This is only one of countless cases where people could experience this type of anxiety, however, experiencing it in everyday life is very common.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Types of anxiety according to Freud, we recommend that you enter our category of Cognitive Psychology.