Changes

Psychiatrists also distinguish between generalised anxiety states, when "free-floating anxiety" is present most of the time, and "panic attacks", which are "intermittent episodes of acute anxiety."<ref>Hughes, 1981: 48-9</ref>

[[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.

In 1926, however, he abandoned this theory and [[Freud]] argued instead that [[anxiety was ]] is a reaction to a 'traumatic [[trauma]]tic situation' - , an experience of [[helplessness]] in the face of an accumulation of excitation that cannot be discharged.

Traumatic [[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 traumatic [[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.

Lacan, in In his pre-war writingsearly work, [[Lacan]] relates [[anxiety primarily ]] to the [[threat ]] of [[fragmentation with ]] which the [[subject is confronted ]] confronts in the [[mirror stage (see [[fragmented body]]).

It is only long after the [[mirror stage]], he argues, that these 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 traumatic [[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>

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>

Lacan argues that anxiety Anxiety is the radical danger which the subject attempts to avoid at thus present in all costs[[neurotic]] [[structure]]s, and that the various subjective formations encountered but is especially evident in psychoanalysis, from phobias to fetishism, are protections against anxiety[[phobia]].<ref>S4, 23{{E}} p.321</ref>

Anxiety is thus present in all neurotic structures, but is especially evident in phobia (E, 321). Even a [[phobia ]] is preferable to [[anxiety]];<ref>{{S4, }} p.345</ref> a [[phobia ]] at least replaces [[anxiety (which is terrible precisely because it is not focused on a particular object but revolves around an absence) ]] with [[fear ]] (which is focused on a particular object and thus may be 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 triangle and the [[Oedipal ]] [[quaternary]].

It is at this junction that 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>

[[Hans ]] would have been saved from this [[anxiety ]] by the [[castrating ]] intervention of the [[real ]] [[father]], but this does not happen; the [[father ]] fails to intervene to separate [[Hans ]] from the [[mother]], and thus [[Hans ]] develops a [[phobia ]] as a substitute for this intervention.

Once again, what emerges from [[Lacan]]'s account of [[Little Hans ]] is that it is not separation from the [[mother ]] which gives rise to [[anxiety]], but failure to separate from her.<ref>{{S4, }} p.319</ref>

Consequently, [[castration]], far from being the principal source of [[anxiety]], is actually what saves the [[subject ]] from [[anxiety]].

In the seminar of 1960-1 [[seminar]], [[Le transfert]], [[Lacan ]] stresses the relationship of [[anxiety ]] to [[desire; anxiety is a way of sustaining desire when the object is missing and, conversely, desire is a remedy for anxiety, something easier to bear than anxiety itself]].<ref>S8, 430</ref>

He also argues that the source of anxiety [[Anxiety]] is not always internal a way to sustain [[desire]] when the subject, but can often come from another, just as it is transmitted from one animal to another in a herd; "if anxiety [[object]] is a signal, it means it can come from another[[missing]]."<ref>S8, 427</ref>

This [[Desire]] is why the analyst must not allow his own a remedy for [[anxiety to interfere with the treatment]], a requirement which he is only able easier to meet because he maintains a desire of his own, the desire of the analystbear than [[anxiety]].<ref>{{S8, }} p.430</ref>

In He also argues that the seminar source of 1962-3, entitled simply 'Anxiety', Lacan argues that [[anxiety ]] is an affectnot always internal to the [[subject]], not an emotionbut can often come from another, and furthermore that just as it is the only affect which transmitted from one animal to another in a herd; "if anxiety is beyond all doubta signal, which is not deceptiveit means it can come from another."<ref>see also Sl l, 41{{S8}} p.427</ref>

Whereas Freud distinguished between fear (which This is focused on why the [[analyst]] must not allow his own [[anxiety]] to interfere with the [[treatment]], a specific object) and anxiety (requirement which he is not), Lacan now argues that anxiety is not without an object (n'est pas sans objet); it simply involves only able to meet because he maintains a different kind [[desire]] of objecthis own, an object which cannot be symbolised in the same way as all other objects[[desire]] of the [[analyst]].<ref>{{S8}} p. 430</ref>

This object is objet petit a, In the [[objectseminar]] of 1962-cause of desire3, entitled simply '[[Anxiety]]', [[Lacan]] argues that [[anxiety]] is an [[affect]], not an emotion, and anxiety appears when something appears in furthermore that it is the place of this objectonly [[affect]] which is beyond all doubt, which is not deceptive.<ref>{{S11}} p. 41</ref>

Anxiety arises when the subject Whereas [[Freud]] distinguished between [[fear]] (which is focused on a specific object) and [[anxiety]] (which is not), [[Lacan]] now argues that anxiety is confronted by the desire 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 Other and does not know what same way as all other [[object he is for that desire]]s.

It This [[object]] is also [[objet petit a]], the [[object-cause of desire]], and [[anxiety]] appears when something appears in this seminar that Lacan links anxiety to the concept place of lackthis [[object]].

All desire arises from lack, and anxiety [[Anxiety]] arises when this lack is itself lacking; anxiety the [[subject]] is confronted by the lack [[desire]] of a lackthe [[Other]] and does not know what [[object]] he is for that [[desire]].

Anxiety is not [[Lacan]] links [[anxiety]] to the absence concept of the breast, but its enveloping presence; it is the possibility of its absence which is, in fact, that which saves us from anxiety[[lack]].

[[Anxiety]] arises when [[lack]] is itself [[lack]]ing. [[Anxiety]] is the [[lack]] of a [[lack]]. [[Desire]] arises from [[lack]]. [[Anxiety]] is not the [[absence]] of the [[breast]], but its enveloping [[presence]]. it is the possibility of its [[absence]] which is, in fact, that which saves us from [[anxiety]].  [[Acting out ]] and [[passage to the act ]] are last defences [[defence]]s against [[anxiety]]. [[Anxiety ]] is also linked to the [[mirror stage]].

Whereas the [[seminar ]] of 1962-3 is largely concerned with [[Freud]]'s second theory of [[anxiety ]] (anxiety as signal), in the [[seminar ]] of 1974-5 [[Lacan ]] appears to return to the first Freudian 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 phallic jouissance.<ref>Lacan, 1974-5: seminar of 17 December 1974</ref><ref>anxiety 41, 73 [[Seminar XIlibido]]</ref>).

[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]