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[[AnxietyPsychiatric]] ([[French]]:''angoisse'') has long been recognised in [[psychiatry]] as one descriptions of the most common [[symptomanxiety]]s of generally refer to both mental disorderphenomena (apprehension, worry) and bodily phenomena (breathlessnes, palpitations, muscle tension, fatigue, dizziness, sweating and tremor).
The [[German ]] term employed by [[Freud]] (''[[Angst]]'') can have the [[psychiatric ]] sense described above, but is by no means an exclusively technical term, being also in common use in ordinary [[speech]].
[[Freud]] developed two theories of [[anxiety]] during the course of his work.
From 1884 to 1925 he argued that [[neurotic]] [[anxiety]] is simply a transformation of [[sexual]] [[libido]] that has not been adequately discharged[[discharge]]d.
In 1926, [[Freud]] argued that [[anxiety]] is a reaction to a '"[[trauma]]tic situation', " an experience of [[helplessness]] in the face of an accumulation of excitation that cannot be discharged[[discharge]]d.
[[Trauma]]tic situations are precipitated by '"situations of danger' " such as birth, [[loss]] of the [[mother]] as [[object]], [[loss]] of the [[object]]'s [[love]] and, above all, [[castration]]. [[Freud]] distinguishes between "automatic anxiety," when the [[anxiety]] arises directly as a result of a [[trauma]]tic situation, and "anxiety as signal," when the [[anxiety]] is actively reproduced by the [[ego]] as a warning of an anticipated situation of danger. ---
In his early work, [[Lacan]] relates [[anxiety]] to the [[threat]] of [[fragmentation]] which the [[subject]] confronts in the [[mirror stage]].
It is only long after the [[mirror stage]], he argues, that these [[fantasy|fantasies ]] of bodily dismemberment coalesce around the [[penis]], giving rise to [[castration]] [[anxiety]].<ref>Lacan, 1938: 44</ref>
He also links [[anxiety]] with the [[fear]] of being engulfed by the devouring [[mother]].
This theme (with its distinctly [[Klein]]ian tone) remains an important aspect of [[Lacan]]'s account of [[anxiety]] thereafter, and marks an apparent difference between [[Lacan]] and [[Freud]]: whereas [[Freud]] posits that one of the causes of [[anxiety]] is [[separation]] from the [[mother]], [[Lacan]] argues that it is precisely a [[lack ]] of such [[separation]] which induces [[anxiety]]. ---
After 1953, [[Lacan]] comes increasingly to articulate [[anxiety]] with his concept of the [[real]], a [[trauma]]tic element which remains [[external]] to [[symbolisation], and hence which lacks any possible mediation.
This [[real]] is "the essential object which isn't an object any longer, but this something faced with which all words cease and all categories fail, the object of anxiety par excellence."<ref>{{S2}} p.164</ref>
--
As well as linking [[anxiety]] with the [[real]], [[Lacan]] also locates it in the [[imaginary]] [[order]] and contrasts it with [[guilt]], which he situates in the [[symbolic]].<ref>Lacan, 1956b: 272-3</ref>
"Anxiety, as we know, is always connected with a loss . . . with a two-sided relation on the point of fading away to be superseded by something else, something which the patient cannot face without vertigo."<ref>Lacan, 1956b: 273</ref>
--- In the [[seminar ]] of 1956-7 [[Lacan ]] goes on to develop his theory of [[anxiety]] further, in the context of his discussion of [[phobia]].
[[Lacan]] argues that [[anxiety]] is the radical danger which the [[subject]] attempts to avoid at all costs, and that the various subjective formations encountered in [[psychoanalysis]], from [[phobia]]s to [[fetishism]], are protections against [[anxiety]].<ref>{{S4}} p.23</ref>
Anxiety is thus present in all [[neurotic]] [[structure]]s, but is especially evident in [[phobia]].<ref>{{E}} p.321</ref>
Even a [[phobia]] is preferable to [[anxiety]];<ref>{{S4}} p.345</ref> a [[phobia]] at least replaces [[anxiety]] with [[fear]] (which is focused on a particular [[object ]] and thus may be [[symbolic|symbolically ]] worked-through).<ref>{{S4}} p.243-6</ref> ---
In his analysis of the case of [[Little Hans]],<ref>Freud, 1909b</ref> [[Lacan]] argues that [[anxiety]] arises at that moment when the [[subject]] is poised between the [[imaginary]] [[preoedipal phase|preoedipal triangle ]] and the [[Oedipal]] [[quaternary]].
It is at this junction that [[Little Hans|Hans]]'s real [[penis]] makes itself felt in infantile masturbation; [[anxiety]] is produced because he can now measure the difference between that for which he is loved by the [[mother]] (his position as [[imaginary phallus]]) and that which he really has to give (his insignificant real organ).<ref>{{S4}} p.243</ref>
[[Anxiety]] is this point where the [[subject]] is suspended between a moment where he no longer knows where he is and a future where he will never again be able to refind himself.<ref>{{S4}} p.226</ref>
Consequently, [[castration]], far from being the principal source of [[anxiety]], is actually what saves the [[subject]] from [[anxiety]].
--- In the 1960-1 [[seminar]], [[Le transfert]]of 1960-1, [[Lacan]] stresses the relationship of [[anxiety]] to [[desire]].
[[Anxiety]] is a way to sustain [[desire]] when the [[object]] is [[missing]].
This is why the [[analyst]] must not allow his own [[anxiety]] to interfere with the [[treatment]], a requirement which he is only able to meet because he maintains a [[desire]] of his own, the [[desire]] of the [[analyst]].<ref>{{S8}} p.430</ref>
---
In the [[seminar]] of 1962-3, entitled simply '[[Anxiety]]', [[Lacan]] argues that [[anxiety]] is an [[affect]], not an emotion, and furthermore that it is the only [[affect]] which is beyond all doubt, which is not deceptive.<ref>{{S11}} p.41</ref>
Whereas [[Freud]] distinguished between [[fear]] (which is focused on a specific object) and [[anxiety]] (which is not), [[Lacan]] now argues that anxiety is not without an [[object]] (''n'est pas sans objet''); it simply involves a different kind of [[object]], an [[object]] which cannot be [[symbolise]]d in the same way as all other [[object]]s.
This [[object]] is ''[[objet petit a]]'', the [[object-cause of desire]], and [[anxiety]] appears when something appears in the place of this [[object]].
[[Anxiety]] arises when the [[subject]] is confronted by the [[desire]] of the [[Other]] and does not know what [[object]] he is for that [[desire]].
-- It is also in this [[semina]] that [[Lacan]] links [[anxiety]] to the concept of [[lack]].
All [[Anxietydesire]] arises from [[lack]], and [[anxiety]] arises when this [[lack]] is itself [[lack]]ing; [[anxiety]] is the [[lack] of a [[lack]].
[[Anxiety]] is not the [[lackabsence]] of a the [[breast]], but its enveloping [[presence]]; it is the possibility of its [[absence]] which is, in fact, that which saves us from [[lackanxiety]].
[[DesireActing out]] arises from and [[lackpassage to the act]] are last [[defence]]s against [[anxiety]].
[[Anxiety]] is also linked to the [[mirror stage]].
Even in the usually comforting experience of seeing one's reflection in the mirror there can occur a moment when the [[specular image ]] is modified and suddenly seems strange to us. In this way, [[Lacan]] links [[anxiety]] to [[Freud]]'s concept of the ''[[uncanny]]''.<ref>Freud, 1919h</ref> --
Whereas the [[seminar]] of 1962-3 is largely concerned with [[Freud]]'s second theory of [[anxiety]] ([[anxiety ]] as signal[[sign]]al), in the [[seminar]] of 1974-5 [[Lacan]] appears to return to the first Freudian [[Freud]]ian theory of [[anxiety ]] ([[anxiety ]] as transformed [[libido]]).
Thus he comments that [[anxiety]] is that which exists in the interior of the [[body]] when the [[body]] is overcome with [[phallus|phallic ]] ''[[jouissance]]''.<ref>Lacan, 1974-5: seminar of 17 December 1974</ref><ref>anxiety 41, 73 [[Seminar XI]]</ref>
==See Also==
* [[Fragmented body]]
* [[Mirror stage]]
== References ==
