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[[Psychiatric]] descriptions of [[anxiety ]] generally refer to both mental phenomena (angoisseapprehension, worry) and [[bodily]] phenomena (breathlessnes, palpitations, muscle tension, fatigue, dizziness, sweating and tremor).

Anxiety has long been recognised in psychiatry as one of the [[Psychiatrist]]s also distinguish between generalised [[anxiety]] states, when "free-[[floating]] anxiety" is [[present]] most common symptoms of mental disorder. Psychiatric descriptions of anxiety generally refer to both mental phenomena (apprehensionthe [[time]], worry) and bodily phenomena (breathlessnes"[[panic]] attacks, palpitations" which are "intermittent episodes of acute anxiety."<ref>Hughes, muscle tensionJennifer. ''An [[Outline]] of Modern Psychiatry'', fatigueChichester: Wiley, dizziness, sweating and tremor)1991. pp. Psychiatrists also distinguish between generalised anxiety states, when 'free48-floating anxiety' is present most of the time, and 9</ref> ==Sigmund Freud==The [[German]] term employed by [[Freud]] ('panic attacks', which are [[Angst]]'intermittent episodes of acute anxiety' (Hughes, 1981: 48-9).The German term employed by Freud (Angst) can have ) 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, however, he abandoned this theory and argued instead [[Freud]] argued that [[anxiety was ]] is a reaction to a 'traumatic "[[trauma]]tic [[situation' - ]]," an [[experience ]] of HELPLESSNEss [[helplessness]] in the face of an accumulation of [[excitation ]] that cannot be discharged[[discharge]]d. 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 '"[[anxiety|automatic anxiety']], " when the [[anxiety ]] arises directly as a result of a traumatic [[trauma]]tic situation, and '"[[anxiety|anxiety as signal']], " when the [[anxiety ]] is actively reproduced by the [[ego ]] as a warning of an anticipated situation of danger. ==Jacques 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 [[fantasy|fantasies ]] of bodily dismemberment coalesce around the [[penis]], giving rise to [[castration ]] [[anxiety (Lacan, ]].<ref>{{1938: }} p. 44). </ref> He also [[links ]] [[anxiety ]] with the [[fear ]] of being engulfed by the devouring [[mother]].  This theme (with its distinctly Kleinian [[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]]. ==Real==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> ==Imaginary==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>{{L}} "[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Fetishism: The Symbolic, 1956b: 272-3the Imaginary and the Real]]" (with W. Granoff), 1956. M. [[Balint]] (ed.), ''Perversions: [[Psychodynamics]] and [[Therapy]]'', New York: Random House, [[London]]: Tavistock. pp. 272-3</ref> <blockquote>"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>{{L}} "[[Works of Jacques Lacan, 1956b|Fetishism: 273The Symbolic, the Imaginary and the Real]]" (with W. Granoff), 1956.In the seminar of 1956-7 Lacan goes on M. Balint (ed.), ''Perversions: Psychodynamics and Therapy'', New York: Random House, London: Tavistock. p. 273</ref></blockquote> ==Phobia==In the [[seminar]] of 1956-7 [[Lacan]] goes on to develop his [[theory ]] of [[anxiety ]] further, in the context of his [[discussion ]] of PHOBIA[[phobia]].  [[Lacan ]] argues that [[anxiety ]] is the radical danger which the [[subject ]] attempts to avoid at all costs, and that the various subjective formations [[subject]]ive [[formation]]s encountered in [[psychoanalysis]], from phobias [[phobia]]s to [[fetishism]], are protections against [[anxiety (]].<ref>{{S4, }} p. 23). </ref> [[Anxiety ]] is thus present in all [[neurotic structures]] [[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 (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 [[symbolic|symbolically ]] worked-through) (.<ref>{{S4, }} p. 243-6).</ref> ==Little Hans==In his [[analysis ]] of the [[case ]] of [[Little Hans (]],<ref>{{F}} "[[Work of Sigmund Freud|Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy]]", 1909b). [[SE]] X, 3.</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>  [[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 [[separation|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]]. ==Desire==In the [[seminar ]] of 1960-1 , [[Lacan ]] stresses the [[relationship ]] of [[anxiety ]] to [[desire; anxiety ]]. [[Anxiety]] is a way of sustaining to sustain [[desire ]] when the [[object ]] is [[missing and, conversely, desire ]]. [[Desire]] is a remedy for [[anxiety]], something easier to bear than [[anxiety itself (]].<ref>{{S8, }} p. 430). </ref> He also argues that the source of [[anxiety ]] is not always [[internal ]] to the [[subject]], but can often come from [[another]], just as it is transmitted from one [[animal ]] to another in a herd; '"if anxiety is a [[signal]], it means it can come from another' (."<ref>{{S8, }} p. 427). </ref> 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> ==Truth==In the [[seminar ]] of 1962-3, entitled simply '"[[Anxiety']]", [[Lacan ]] argues that [[anxiety ]] is an [[affect]], not an [[affect|emotion]], and furthermore that it is the only [[affect ]] which is beyond all [[doubt]], which is not [[truth|deceptive (see also Sl l, ]].<ref>{{S11}} p. 41). </ref>  ==''Objet (petit) a''==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 symbolised [[symbolise]]d in the same way as all other objects[[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]]. ==Lack==It is also in this [[seminar ]] that [[Lacan ]] links [[anxiety ]] to the concept of [[lack]].  All [[desire ]] arises from [[lack]], and [[anxiety ]] arises when this [[lack ]] is itself lacking[[lack]]ing; [[anxiety ]] is the [[lack ]] of a [[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]]. ==Mirror Stage==[[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 (Freud]]''.<ref>{{F}} "[[The Uncanny]]", 1919h).[[SE]] XIV, 161.</ref> Whereas ==''Jouissance''==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 (Lacan]]''.<ref>{{L}} ''[[Seminar XXII|Le Séminaire. Livre XXII. RSI, 1974-5: seminar of ]]'', published in ''[[Ornicar?]]'', nos. 2-5, 1975. [[Seminar]] of 17 December 1974).</ref> ==See Also=={{See}}* [[Absence]]* [[Castration]]* [[Desire]]||* [[Fragmented body]]* ''[[Jouissance]]''* [[Lack]]||* [[Mirror stage]]* [[Mother]]* [[Other]]||* [[Neurosis]]* [[Phobia]]* [[Structure]]{{Also}}