What do you think?
Rate this book
Αναστολή, σύμπτωμα και άγχος
Setting forth in rich detail Freud's new theory of anxiety, Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety (1926) is evidence for one of them. In rethinking his earlier work on the subject, Freud saw several types of anxiety at work in the mind and here argues that anxiety causes repression, rather than the other way around.
133 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1925
83 people are currently reading
1317 people want to read
About the author
Sigmund Freud
4,366 books8,501 followersDr. Sigismund Freud (later changed to Sigmund) was a neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, who created an entirely new approach to the understanding of the human personality. He is regarded as one of the most influential—and controversial—minds of the 20th century.
In 1873, Freud began to study medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital. He collaborated with Josef Breuer in treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis. In 1885, Freud went to Paris as a student of the neurologist Jean Charcot. On his return to Vienna the following year, Freud set up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain disorders. The same year he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children.
Freud developed the theory that humans have an unconscious in which sexual and aggressive impulses are in perpetual conflict for supremacy with the defences against them. In 1897, he began an intensive analysis of himself. In 1900, his major work 'The Interpretation of Dreams' was published in which Freud analysed dreams in terms of unconscious desires and experiences.
In 1902, Freud was appointed Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Vienna, a post he held until 1938. Although the medical establishment disagreed with many of his theories, a group of pupils and followers began to gather around Freud. In 1910, the International Psychoanalytic Association was founded with Carl Jung, a close associate of Freud's, as the president. Jung later broke with Freud and developed his own theories.
After World War One, Freud spent less time in clinical observation and concentrated on the application of his theories to history, art, literature and anthropology. In 1923, he published 'The Ego and the Id', which suggested a new structural model of the mind, divided into the 'id, the 'ego' and the 'superego'.
In 1933, the Nazis publicly burnt a number of Freud's books. In 1938, shortly after the Nazis annexed Austria, Freud left Vienna for London with his wife and daughter Anna.
Freud had been diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in 1923, and underwent more than 30 operations. He died of cancer on 23 September 1939.
In 1873, Freud began to study medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital. He collaborated with Josef Breuer in treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis. In 1885, Freud went to Paris as a student of the neurologist Jean Charcot. On his return to Vienna the following year, Freud set up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain disorders. The same year he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children.
Freud developed the theory that humans have an unconscious in which sexual and aggressive impulses are in perpetual conflict for supremacy with the defences against them. In 1897, he began an intensive analysis of himself. In 1900, his major work 'The Interpretation of Dreams' was published in which Freud analysed dreams in terms of unconscious desires and experiences.
In 1902, Freud was appointed Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Vienna, a post he held until 1938. Although the medical establishment disagreed with many of his theories, a group of pupils and followers began to gather around Freud. In 1910, the International Psychoanalytic Association was founded with Carl Jung, a close associate of Freud's, as the president. Jung later broke with Freud and developed his own theories.
After World War One, Freud spent less time in clinical observation and concentrated on the application of his theories to history, art, literature and anthropology. In 1923, he published 'The Ego and the Id', which suggested a new structural model of the mind, divided into the 'id, the 'ego' and the 'superego'.
In 1933, the Nazis publicly burnt a number of Freud's books. In 1938, shortly after the Nazis annexed Austria, Freud left Vienna for London with his wife and daughter Anna.
Freud had been diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in 1923, and underwent more than 30 operations. He died of cancer on 23 September 1939.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
October 16, 2017
Actual representation of me when I finished reading. Jokes aside this book at first was hard even though I read it in my mother tongue my brain at some points couldn't function properly. A couple of days ago someone told me the same things more or less that Freud uses in this book so it was easier for me to comprehend them 'cause Freud was such an intellectual.
Anyway, needless to say that just by reading it my anxiety got triggered right?
February 9, 2022
Ummm, what, Sigi? I thought my psych had my anxiety controlled and now I learn that I need to worry about being castrated
January 21, 2024
When I was a young psychiatrist studying at the Société Du Magnétisme De La Nouvelle Orléans under Dabney Ewin, hypnotism was enjoying some resurgence of interest in the popular zeitgeist. I quickly developed a considerable caseload of patients who wanted me to get them to quit smoking, to lose weight, to enjoy sex again, or to help them deal with repressed trauma. But it was during my consults at Charity emergency room that I learned to respect the potential of this modality.
People in acute pain, panic, or trauma are very susceptible to suggestion. Dr. Ewin taught me that you can relax an agitated person with no medication, reduce someone's heart, breathing rate, or blood pressure, and (to my shock) even reduce acute bleeding. So when I was called to the ER to see what I could do with a young woman with psychosomatic paralysis of her legs, my first thought was to see what response I could get through hypnotism. She giggled at me as I tried. But I did get her to walk. Sure, she stumbled about dramatically for a while, much to the panic of the physical therapist who was with me. I do think she had not walked for at least two weeks, as she had developed the early beginnings of pressure sores on her heels and lower back, so she was a little deconditioned. But she was able to walk out the hospital with her mom.
And that's when I became interested in the Freudian concept of Inhibition, and when I first read this book. You see, I truly don't think the girl was being stubborn or just trying to get attention, like the ER physicians did who were sick of her mother bringing her in for the umpteenth time to the hospital because the outpatient docs couldn't find anything physically wrong with her. So what is this thing that can make a perfectly healthy young woman refuse to walk to the point where she developed pressure sores and her muscles weakened? What makes someone refuse to eat any meals, or vomit whatever they do eat? What makes an otherwise healthy man unable to maintain an erection during sex? And how had I inadvertently broken through this barrier to help my patient walk? Was it my skill as an amateur "mesmerist"? Hell no, and even if that were true, what did I actually do? Or had she felt sorry for this young goober trying to raise her to her feet like some tent revivalist, and I unwittingly unlocked an unconscious desire for her to please me by walking, and thus overcoming her psychological resistance to independent mobility?
Freud's book on Inhibitions is not his most famous work, but is a crucial part of how he changed the world. He too wondered why a patient of his could no longer walk whenever it seemed something happened to make the patient angry, or why another patient would starve herself when she felt anxious. He called inhibitions "restrictions in the function of the ego which have been imposed as a measure of precaution..." An inhibition doesn't necessarily have to result in something "bad," like a loss of bodily function. For example, healthy people with no psychiatric pathology would certainly refrain from telling their boss to piss off when given an impossible directive, but instead find more diplomatic means to navigate the situation. So Freud carefully separates inhibitions from symptoms.
In fact, he rightfully proposes that people repress and filter out unpleasant emotional states every day in order to behave appropriately to the situation at hand. We only notice it when this process fails. If someone gets in a major car crash and is injured, the brain mercifully shuts off the details. Studies have suggested that this happens neurologically by neuronal wiring literally getting short-circuited from the hippocampus (the seat of memory deep in our brains) to the cerebral cortex (where we experience consciousness). So the survivor of a car crash doesn't necessarily live the rest of life never riding in a vehicle again. But the brain is designed to protect us from potential harm. So it does encode warnings in subcortical structures that are readily available when needed. What if the accident happened on icy roads on the interstate in downtown Chicago with a tractor trailer? The survivor may remember the accident but be fuzzy on details, if any, and be able to drive just fine again with no significant anxiety for years, that is, until any combination of stimuli comes too close to reproducing the above circumstances of the historical trauma. Now the driver may have panic symptoms when on the interstate, or perhaps only until surrounded by big trucks, or maybe the driver will refuse to go to work during snowy weather. All of this happens automatically through this wonderful processing system we call a brain. And if these functions don't quite work the way we expect, then the fight-or-flight response happens seemingly spontaneously or in inappropriate situations.
Freud was able to figure this out over 100 years ago. He used different nomenclature, and referred to brain systems as the id, the ego, and the superego, but essentially his general outline remains valid with regards to our understanding of prolonged grief, PTSD, chronic depression, phobias, and anxiety disorders. He also pioneered the idea that the brain can protect us from INTERNAL threats as well as external. A hostile thought to kill the boss, for instance, or to sexually assault an attractive stranger standing next to you in line for theater tickets. The helpful inhibitions come from a complex system of encoded anxieties just beneath the fully conscious level (the subconscious) and come from a variety of interwoven sources--past experiences of negative consequences from certain actions, moral and ethical values enforced by society, cultural and religious beliefs, parenting, etc. Freud called this the superego.
But sometimes we see no way out from anticipated danger, and so a bodily function is "converted" into a substitute. Freud called this a neurosis. We call it conversion disorder now. Performance and separation anxiety mixed with intense fear of displeasing parents may lead a teenager to not be able to walk after graduating highschool and admission to an out-of-state university. Now the child has found a solution to her dilemma without being entirely conscious of it. She can avoid the stress of the new alien environment of university and her own fear of independence without incurring the wrath of a rageful and abusive father, while her doting and enabling mother frets over her illness and allows her to return to a more pleasurable, albeit more infantile, state. The longer this exploited opportunity is relied upon to maintain and protect the self, the more it becomes engrained. The unconscious brain organ isn't aware that one problem has been substituted for another--for the time being, problem solved. This is perhaps why my own "paralyzed" patient had an affect divorced from her presentation. She did not seem concerned about her body's failing her, and as I said, even giggled flirtatiously during my examination and treatment of her. Hell, I'd think that if I were her, I'd be freaking out!
The keys to treating such an occurrence is to catch it early, to be absolutely sure of the psychosocial history of the target symptom, and then slowly rebuild a conscious connection so the patient has insight and control again. Freud called this process psychoanalysis.
He was also careful to avoid overemphasizing the brain's ability to make these compensations. Otherwise, he says, you run the danger of assuming a soldier intentionally got his leg blown off in war so he could live off disability and not work anymore. Unfortunately, I've seen this happen with many clinicians, including myself in my personal life. You've heard it before: "The real reason you are this way is to punish ME!" We all need to be careful not to fall into the temptation of quickly jumping to such ridiculous conclusions, seeing everything through one lens and using the same tool as a solution to everything, or by taking things personally.
Unlike intellectuals whose influence comes from the void of the classroom, the lecture hall, the library, the home office, and the elite cocktail party, Freud's ideas sprang from the clinic, from his devoted interest in and experience with people at a deep level. Freud has become the subject of jokes in the public consciousness these days, and many contemporary psychological theorists venerate Freud's role in kicking off a new profession, but otherwise see his ideas as antiquated.
I, too, do not subscribe to every little thing he has said, but each time I revisit his writings, I am reminded how much of a friggin genius this guy was, and how spot on we have found him to be even now as we tease out the source of conscious volition, emotion, behavior, and automatic organ function through neural network mapping and neurotransmitter feedback loops. He didn't have our technology at his disposal. He had the works of Dostoevsky and other intuitive novelists and poets, as well as the great philosophers of mind, with which he would correlate his observations of behavior and diligently obtained life histories of his patients.
I would not recommend this monograph as the first thing to read if you have no experience with Freud. That is reserved for "The Interpretation of Dreams." This book also already assumes you need no explanation as to what things like an Oedipus complex or a reaction-formation or the pleasure principle are. For those concepts, I refer you to "The Ego and the Id" and "Beyond the Pleasure Principle." But I would place it in the first four of his works you should read if you want a deep dive into an understanding of Freud. And of course, if you are a student of psychology or psychoanalysis, or a mental health professional, make sure you have given this book some attention. Here's why:
This book, as a foundational work in "hysteria," is perhaps more important now as ever. Because in today's productivity-based medicine, people suffering from physical disabilities caused by symptoms of depression and anxiety are often shunted from specialist to specialist, racking up huge debt without getting any closer to recovery. When they finally see a psychiatrist, they are prescribed a cocktail of polypharmacy which in turn has its own consequences.
Or just the opposite happens: people get branded as psychosomatic or even "faking it" before a thorough medical workup is complete. I've encountered a patient with uncal herniation who had previously been branded by three neurologists as having "hysterical migraines." Another patient had a rash on his back that his doctors said was him "picking at it." I repeat--On his BACK! Have you tried picking a zit between your shoulder blades? Well, maybe he had a significant other with overdeveloped grooming instincts who watched too much "Dr. Pimple Popper." But the simplest of dermatologic workups revealed the cause as a very treatable fungal infection. Speaking of fungi, another case of a patient with hysterical paralysis turned out to have untreated HIV and thus a huge fungal ball in his brain. And I can't tell you how many patients with pseudoseizures actually ended up having the real thing.
Let's face it. Medical professionals simply don't have or make the time to put in the work needed to unravel cases of potential psychosomatic origin. And many therapists and counselors are poorly trained to deal effectively with these presentations, only able to provide well-meaning support and encouragement. In today's fast-paced world, we just don't take interest in people with problems we don't readily understand.
We could all learn a thing or two from Freud.
People in acute pain, panic, or trauma are very susceptible to suggestion. Dr. Ewin taught me that you can relax an agitated person with no medication, reduce someone's heart, breathing rate, or blood pressure, and (to my shock) even reduce acute bleeding. So when I was called to the ER to see what I could do with a young woman with psychosomatic paralysis of her legs, my first thought was to see what response I could get through hypnotism. She giggled at me as I tried. But I did get her to walk. Sure, she stumbled about dramatically for a while, much to the panic of the physical therapist who was with me. I do think she had not walked for at least two weeks, as she had developed the early beginnings of pressure sores on her heels and lower back, so she was a little deconditioned. But she was able to walk out the hospital with her mom.
And that's when I became interested in the Freudian concept of Inhibition, and when I first read this book. You see, I truly don't think the girl was being stubborn or just trying to get attention, like the ER physicians did who were sick of her mother bringing her in for the umpteenth time to the hospital because the outpatient docs couldn't find anything physically wrong with her. So what is this thing that can make a perfectly healthy young woman refuse to walk to the point where she developed pressure sores and her muscles weakened? What makes someone refuse to eat any meals, or vomit whatever they do eat? What makes an otherwise healthy man unable to maintain an erection during sex? And how had I inadvertently broken through this barrier to help my patient walk? Was it my skill as an amateur "mesmerist"? Hell no, and even if that were true, what did I actually do? Or had she felt sorry for this young goober trying to raise her to her feet like some tent revivalist, and I unwittingly unlocked an unconscious desire for her to please me by walking, and thus overcoming her psychological resistance to independent mobility?
Freud's book on Inhibitions is not his most famous work, but is a crucial part of how he changed the world. He too wondered why a patient of his could no longer walk whenever it seemed something happened to make the patient angry, or why another patient would starve herself when she felt anxious. He called inhibitions "restrictions in the function of the ego which have been imposed as a measure of precaution..." An inhibition doesn't necessarily have to result in something "bad," like a loss of bodily function. For example, healthy people with no psychiatric pathology would certainly refrain from telling their boss to piss off when given an impossible directive, but instead find more diplomatic means to navigate the situation. So Freud carefully separates inhibitions from symptoms.
In fact, he rightfully proposes that people repress and filter out unpleasant emotional states every day in order to behave appropriately to the situation at hand. We only notice it when this process fails. If someone gets in a major car crash and is injured, the brain mercifully shuts off the details. Studies have suggested that this happens neurologically by neuronal wiring literally getting short-circuited from the hippocampus (the seat of memory deep in our brains) to the cerebral cortex (where we experience consciousness). So the survivor of a car crash doesn't necessarily live the rest of life never riding in a vehicle again. But the brain is designed to protect us from potential harm. So it does encode warnings in subcortical structures that are readily available when needed. What if the accident happened on icy roads on the interstate in downtown Chicago with a tractor trailer? The survivor may remember the accident but be fuzzy on details, if any, and be able to drive just fine again with no significant anxiety for years, that is, until any combination of stimuli comes too close to reproducing the above circumstances of the historical trauma. Now the driver may have panic symptoms when on the interstate, or perhaps only until surrounded by big trucks, or maybe the driver will refuse to go to work during snowy weather. All of this happens automatically through this wonderful processing system we call a brain. And if these functions don't quite work the way we expect, then the fight-or-flight response happens seemingly spontaneously or in inappropriate situations.
Freud was able to figure this out over 100 years ago. He used different nomenclature, and referred to brain systems as the id, the ego, and the superego, but essentially his general outline remains valid with regards to our understanding of prolonged grief, PTSD, chronic depression, phobias, and anxiety disorders. He also pioneered the idea that the brain can protect us from INTERNAL threats as well as external. A hostile thought to kill the boss, for instance, or to sexually assault an attractive stranger standing next to you in line for theater tickets. The helpful inhibitions come from a complex system of encoded anxieties just beneath the fully conscious level (the subconscious) and come from a variety of interwoven sources--past experiences of negative consequences from certain actions, moral and ethical values enforced by society, cultural and religious beliefs, parenting, etc. Freud called this the superego.
But sometimes we see no way out from anticipated danger, and so a bodily function is "converted" into a substitute. Freud called this a neurosis. We call it conversion disorder now. Performance and separation anxiety mixed with intense fear of displeasing parents may lead a teenager to not be able to walk after graduating highschool and admission to an out-of-state university. Now the child has found a solution to her dilemma without being entirely conscious of it. She can avoid the stress of the new alien environment of university and her own fear of independence without incurring the wrath of a rageful and abusive father, while her doting and enabling mother frets over her illness and allows her to return to a more pleasurable, albeit more infantile, state. The longer this exploited opportunity is relied upon to maintain and protect the self, the more it becomes engrained. The unconscious brain organ isn't aware that one problem has been substituted for another--for the time being, problem solved. This is perhaps why my own "paralyzed" patient had an affect divorced from her presentation. She did not seem concerned about her body's failing her, and as I said, even giggled flirtatiously during my examination and treatment of her. Hell, I'd think that if I were her, I'd be freaking out!
The keys to treating such an occurrence is to catch it early, to be absolutely sure of the psychosocial history of the target symptom, and then slowly rebuild a conscious connection so the patient has insight and control again. Freud called this process psychoanalysis.
He was also careful to avoid overemphasizing the brain's ability to make these compensations. Otherwise, he says, you run the danger of assuming a soldier intentionally got his leg blown off in war so he could live off disability and not work anymore. Unfortunately, I've seen this happen with many clinicians, including myself in my personal life. You've heard it before: "The real reason you are this way is to punish ME!" We all need to be careful not to fall into the temptation of quickly jumping to such ridiculous conclusions, seeing everything through one lens and using the same tool as a solution to everything, or by taking things personally.
Unlike intellectuals whose influence comes from the void of the classroom, the lecture hall, the library, the home office, and the elite cocktail party, Freud's ideas sprang from the clinic, from his devoted interest in and experience with people at a deep level. Freud has become the subject of jokes in the public consciousness these days, and many contemporary psychological theorists venerate Freud's role in kicking off a new profession, but otherwise see his ideas as antiquated.
I, too, do not subscribe to every little thing he has said, but each time I revisit his writings, I am reminded how much of a friggin genius this guy was, and how spot on we have found him to be even now as we tease out the source of conscious volition, emotion, behavior, and automatic organ function through neural network mapping and neurotransmitter feedback loops. He didn't have our technology at his disposal. He had the works of Dostoevsky and other intuitive novelists and poets, as well as the great philosophers of mind, with which he would correlate his observations of behavior and diligently obtained life histories of his patients.
I would not recommend this monograph as the first thing to read if you have no experience with Freud. That is reserved for "The Interpretation of Dreams." This book also already assumes you need no explanation as to what things like an Oedipus complex or a reaction-formation or the pleasure principle are. For those concepts, I refer you to "The Ego and the Id" and "Beyond the Pleasure Principle." But I would place it in the first four of his works you should read if you want a deep dive into an understanding of Freud. And of course, if you are a student of psychology or psychoanalysis, or a mental health professional, make sure you have given this book some attention. Here's why:
This book, as a foundational work in "hysteria," is perhaps more important now as ever. Because in today's productivity-based medicine, people suffering from physical disabilities caused by symptoms of depression and anxiety are often shunted from specialist to specialist, racking up huge debt without getting any closer to recovery. When they finally see a psychiatrist, they are prescribed a cocktail of polypharmacy which in turn has its own consequences.
Or just the opposite happens: people get branded as psychosomatic or even "faking it" before a thorough medical workup is complete. I've encountered a patient with uncal herniation who had previously been branded by three neurologists as having "hysterical migraines." Another patient had a rash on his back that his doctors said was him "picking at it." I repeat--On his BACK! Have you tried picking a zit between your shoulder blades? Well, maybe he had a significant other with overdeveloped grooming instincts who watched too much "Dr. Pimple Popper." But the simplest of dermatologic workups revealed the cause as a very treatable fungal infection. Speaking of fungi, another case of a patient with hysterical paralysis turned out to have untreated HIV and thus a huge fungal ball in his brain. And I can't tell you how many patients with pseudoseizures actually ended up having the real thing.
Let's face it. Medical professionals simply don't have or make the time to put in the work needed to unravel cases of potential psychosomatic origin. And many therapists and counselors are poorly trained to deal effectively with these presentations, only able to provide well-meaning support and encouragement. In today's fast-paced world, we just don't take interest in people with problems we don't readily understand.
We could all learn a thing or two from Freud.
April 30, 2019
"Αφετηρία των νευρωσεων δεν είναι άλλη από την καταστροφή του οιδιποδειου συμπλέγματος. Πάντα κινητήρια δύναμη είναι το άγχος ευνουχισμου. Το άγχος προέρχεται απευθείας μέσω μιας ζύμωσης από μια λιμπιντικη επένδυση της οποίας η πορεία έχει διαταραχτει.".
Μέσες άκρες ο πυρήνας της θεωρίας του Freud.
Ένας άνθρωπος βαθιά νευρωτικος, ο οποίος δεν σταμάτησε λεπτό να ψυχαναλυει τον εαυτό του και να αναθεωρει ξανά και ξανά τις απόψεις του, πράγμα που τουλάχιστον κατά το ήμισυ πρέπει να χαρακτηρίζει έναν επιστήμονα. Τα πολλά λόγια για τον Freud νομίζω είναι περιττά, ακόμα και αν οι περισσότερες απόψεις του έχουν καταρριφθει, η επιστήμη της ψυχαναλυσης ήταν ένα μωρό που ο μεγάλος αυτός γιατρός τυλιξε στα δικά του φασκια, ταισε, και είδε να ανθιζει με το πέρασμα του χρόνου. Προσωπικά όντας νευρωτικος, είδα πολλές φορές φορές τον εαυτό μου να αντανακλαται στις σελίδες του βιβλίου, πράγμα που με έκανε να υιοθέτησω μεγάλο μέρος της σκέψης του Freud αβασανιστα. Για να μη μακρυγορω, όσο και αν ενδεχομένως να μην ευσταθουν (κατά τους ειδικούς) τα Φροϋδικα μοντέλα σήμερα, τα βιβλία του είναι διαχρονικα και κλασσικά έργα που έθεσαν τα θεμέλια της ψυχολογίας και δη της ψυχαναλυσης.
Μέσες άκρες ο πυρήνας της θεωρίας του Freud.
Ένας άνθρωπος βαθιά νευρωτικος, ο οποίος δεν σταμάτησε λεπτό να ψυχαναλυει τον εαυτό του και να αναθεωρει ξανά και ξανά τις απόψεις του, πράγμα που τουλάχιστον κατά το ήμισυ πρέπει να χαρακτηρίζει έναν επιστήμονα. Τα πολλά λόγια για τον Freud νομίζω είναι περιττά, ακόμα και αν οι περισσότερες απόψεις του έχουν καταρριφθει, η επιστήμη της ψυχαναλυσης ήταν ένα μωρό που ο μεγάλος αυτός γιατρός τυλιξε στα δικά του φασκια, ταισε, και είδε να ανθιζει με το πέρασμα του χρόνου. Προσωπικά όντας νευρωτικος, είδα πολλές φορές φορές τον εαυτό μου να αντανακλαται στις σελίδες του βιβλίου, πράγμα που με έκανε να υιοθέτησω μεγάλο μέρος της σκέψης του Freud αβασανιστα. Για να μη μακρυγορω, όσο και αν ενδεχομένως να μην ευσταθουν (κατά τους ειδικούς) τα Φροϋδικα μοντέλα σήμερα, τα βιβλία του είναι διαχρονικα και κλασσικά έργα που έθεσαν τα θεμέλια της ψυχολογίας και δη της ψυχαναλυσης.
October 8, 2008
Often overlooked, this concise exploration of origins and manifestations of anxiety is often brilliant and provocative. Freud explores the basic properties of fear, anxiety, and touches on the sexual component of these human states of mind/body. Freud hypothesizes that the origin of anxiety is founded in the repressed memory of the human's separation from the mother's originary nutrition during the act of birth. All manifestations of anxiety are (in essence) a resurgence of this primal fear. This is crucial to the role of biology and nourishment to psychoanalysis, often glossed over in its modern variants.
Read
January 15, 2019I genuinely don’t understand why I keep reading these. Some fetish for completionism?
January 6, 2014
A fascinating and (very) difficult little book, this one finds the good doctor rethinking some of his earlier ideas on this fascinating subject. As with so much of Freud, I suspect it will yield even more for me on a future rereading.
March 7, 2015
There are books that change your perception about people and make you start to understand people more and determine you not to criticize them ever again. Freud's books are amongst these books. I enjoyed reading it once again.
August 5, 2016
This short book is far more interesting than its title might suggest.
April 9, 2022
I barely understood a bloody word
September 20, 2021
Φροϋντ
Ο Φροϋντ εξηγεί τα συμπτώματα του άγχος και την αναστολή ξεκινώντας από την παιδική ηλικία. Αυτό που μου κάνει ιδιαίτερη εντύπωση είναι πως σε όλα του τα βιβλία εστιάζει την ερωτική επαφή του παιδιού με τον γονιό. Αυτό το οιδιπόδειο που εμφανίζεται σε διάφορες εκφάνσεις της ζωής.
Το βιβλίο είναι μόλις 131 σελίδες ωστόσο πιστεύω ότι ο απλός αναγνώστης δεν μπορεί να το κατανοήσει πλήρως. Θα ήταν πολύ ενδιαφέρον να παρακολουθούσαμε σεμινάρια περί Φροϋντ και εμείς οι απλοί αναγνώστες.
Λίγα λόγια από το Οπισθόφυλλο:
Ένα από τα πιο σημαντικά κλινικά κείμενα το οποίο έγραψε ο Freud στα 70 του χρόνια, αναθεωρώντας τις ως τότε απόψεις του για το ακανθώδες ζήτημα του άγχους. Εδώ διατυπώνει τη λεγόμενη δεύτερη θεωρία του για το άγχος, αναφερόμενος σε παιδικό άγχος, άγχος επί πραγματικού, νευρωτικό άγχος, αυτόματο άγχος και κυρίως στο άγχος ως σήμα κινδύνου απέναντι σε κάθε απειλητική κατάσταση, το οποίο μπορεί να οδηγήσει σε αναστολή ή σε διαμόρφωση συμπτώματος έχοντας ως έδρα του το εγώ.
Εσείς έχετε διαβάσει Φροϋντ;
Ο Φροϋντ εξηγεί τα συμπτώματα του άγχος και την αναστολή ξεκινώντας από την παιδική ηλικία. Αυτό που μου κάνει ιδιαίτερη εντύπωση είναι πως σε όλα του τα βιβλία εστιάζει την ερωτική επαφή του παιδιού με τον γονιό. Αυτό το οιδιπόδειο που εμφανίζεται σε διάφορες εκφάνσεις της ζωής.
Το βιβλίο είναι μόλις 131 σελίδες ωστόσο πιστεύω ότι ο απλός αναγνώστης δεν μπορεί να το κατανοήσει πλήρως. Θα ήταν πολύ ενδιαφέρον να παρακολουθούσαμε σεμινάρια περί Φροϋντ και εμείς οι απλοί αναγνώστες.
Λίγα λόγια από το Οπισθόφυλλο:
Ένα από τα πιο σημαντικά κλινικά κείμενα το οποίο έγραψε ο Freud στα 70 του χρόνια, αναθεωρώντας τις ως τότε απόψεις του για το ακανθώδες ζήτημα του άγχους. Εδώ διατυπώνει τη λεγόμενη δεύτερη θεωρία του για το άγχος, αναφερόμενος σε παιδικό άγχος, άγχος επί πραγματικού, νευρωτικό άγχος, αυτόματο άγχος και κυρίως στο άγχος ως σήμα κινδύνου απέναντι σε κάθε απειλητική κατάσταση, το οποίο μπορεί να οδηγήσει σε αναστολή ή σε διαμόρφωση συμπτώματος έχοντας ως έδρα του το εγώ.
Εσείς έχετε διαβάσει Φροϋντ;
Read
August 12, 20222022 - releitura
November 20, 2025
excelente y compleja formalizacion de su teoría. leer con tranquilidad y determinación.
December 31, 2022
Nous cherchons manifestement une manière de voir qui nous livre accès à l’essence de l’angoisse, un « ou bien–ou bien » faisant le départ entre la vérité sur elle et l’erreur.
June 22, 2024
This monster of an essay attempts answer two questions: What is anxiety? And what is its relation to symptoms and inhibitions? Along the way, Freud re-evaluates his case studies of Little Hans and the Wolf Man in light of his new structural model, applies Anna Freud's formalization of psychic defenses to hysteric and obsessive neuroses, and critiques Otto Rank's theory of birth trauma.
As early as 1894, Freud suggested that anxiety was the phenomenological correlate of the off-gassing of repressed (i.e. unconscious) libido. According to this early economic model of the psyche, anxiety was understood to be an effect of repression. More than 30 years later, this essay sees Freud revising his earlier hypotheses in light of his metapsychological replacement of the economic model with the structural model. Now, rather than being produced by repression, anxiety is understood to produce repression; and rather than originating in the unconscious, anxiety originates in the ego. Specifically, anxiety is the particular unpleasant affect that is produced when the ego perceives a threat of an imminent danger which originates from either an internal or external source. As an anticipation of danger, anxiety motivates the ego to turn away and flee from the dangerous situation and keep itself safe. When the danger is external, this turning away takes the form of literal flight; when the danger originates in the psyche's id drive impulses, the ego's turning away and fleeing from the danger-situation takes the form of the deployment of a psychic defense (including, amongst others, repression).
Drawing on Darwin's theory of emotions, Freud argues that every affect repeats a previous experience which was in some way significant in the history of the species or the life of the individual. If anxiety is understood to signal the imminent presence of a dangerous situation, we can assume the danger it anticipates in the present situation refers to an earlier experience of real danger, one which left its imprint on the ego in the form of memory-traces (akin to scars) that are now being reactivated in the present. Thus, anxiety anticipates an imminent danger by reactivating a memory of an earlier experience of danger--the ego voluntarily reactivates this stored memory, actively inflicting unpleasure upon itself, in order to spare itself from an even greater unpleasure. The danger which the ego seeks to escape--the original danger which the ego once suffered and now remembers--is a situation in which the ego was overwhelmed by a large amount of libido that it was unable to regulate, and thereby suffered a trauma. Freud makes much of the fact that human babies are born 'prematurely,' so to speak, without fully-formed egos, which relegates us to a state of dependency upon adult others for the first few years of life in order to regulate our internal needs. Thus, the original experience of danger to which anxiety refers must have been an experience in which the ego felt itself to be abandoned by its caretaker--anxiety anticipates the loss of a loved object.
If we examine the course of childhood development, we can see that everyone suffers at least one indelible experience of loss, an originary separation which brings us into being: the event of birth separates us from our peaceful inherence in the womb and throws us into the world as a discrete individual. This is the relative truth of Otto Rank's theory of birth trauma--birth really does constitute an originary trauma, one whose memory-traces are reactivated over the course of our lives in every instance of anxiety, when we perceive the possibility of once again becoming as overwhelmed and helpless as we were during the experience of birth. However, Freud adds to this originary birth trauma several other layers of anxiety which correspond to different objects over the course of development. After birth, the infant will become anxious when its primary caretaker is temporarily absent; this is the child's first experience of anxiety, and it occurs in order to save the baby from falling into another danger-situation in which it was overwhelmed (since the absence of the caretaker would entail that the baby's needs would not be met, and thereby produce an overwhelming feeling of dissatisfaction and deprivation as drive energies would accumulate in its body without being able to be released). The next stage of anxiety would occur as the child is being educated by its caretakers to inhibit sexual and aggressive behaviors; here, anxiety would occur in the child's perception of sexual and aggressive impulses, which would threaten the loss of the caretakers' love if the child acted upon them (and so the child will for the first time come to repress its drives in order to retain the love of its caregivers). As the child enters the phallic stage and becomes embroiled in Oedipal conflicts, anxiety will take the form of castration anxiety; the child fears that it will be punished for its incestuous desires. As the child enters latency, it has by now introjected paternal prohibitions against sexual and aggressive drives; these prohibitions are instantiated in the form of the child's superego. Anxiety now occurs when the child experiences sexual and aggressive impulses and fears the punishment of its superego. Finally, the child's fear of the superego will become projected onto the idea of "destiny" as the child comes to fear its own death.
In each instance, anxiety motivates the ego to escape from the source of the danger. When this source is internal to the child's psyche, as in the case of the ego's perception of id drive impulses, the ego will repress the drives into the unconscious, where they will attach themselves to new ideas and return in the form of symptoms that are more likely to be accepted into the ego. Thus, symptoms express an attempt to escape from anxiety. Freud examines characterological defenses of hysterics (repression) and obsessives (reaction-formation, isolation, and undoing). In phobias, the source of danger is located in one's external environment, often attached to the fear of the father's castration as punishment for the child's sexual and aggressive impulses.
Freud revisits the case of Little Hans to show how the ego can protect itself from anxiety by deploying multiple defenses. Hans defended himself from his castration anxiety (incurred by his Oedipal hatred of his father) by splitting his father into two discrete figures: a loved and hated father. He then displaced the hated father onto the figure of a horse in order to preserve a loving relationship with his real father. In addition, he projected his own aggression into horses, coming to see them as aggressive creatures who wanted to attack him. Finally, he transformed a latent homosexual desire to be penetrated by his father's phallus into a fear of being eaten by his father--representing the defense of regression (in this case, from the phallic to the oral stage). Thus, his phobia was that he would be bitten by a horse (the full meaning of which is that the horse would bite his genitals off). Little Hans' phobia attempted to solve the problem of his ambivalent feelings towards his father, who he both loved and hated owing to his Oedipal jealousy for his mother.
One of Freud's more difficult essays, in part because of the meandering style, but also because it presumes familiarity with several of his earlier papers. The theory of anxiety offered, though, is beautiful. On the one hand, symptoms are formed to spare the ego from anxiety; on the other hand, anxiety is itself a symptom of neurosis. Freud concludes the essay by reminding us that helping a patient become conscious of the source of their anxiety is only a small part of the analytic work; the majority of analysis will involve the patient's "working through" of their unconscious attachment to their compulsion to repeat their symptom. This paper offers us an explanation of why neurotics will cling to their symptoms even as they complain of them; symptoms represent the ego's attempt to assuage its anxiety by repressing the id's drives. However, as Freud reminds us, repression always fails. It is only by helping people understand that the danger-situation they originally feared will not occur that they will come to feel comfortable letting go of their symptom and finding a new way to manage their drives.
As early as 1894, Freud suggested that anxiety was the phenomenological correlate of the off-gassing of repressed (i.e. unconscious) libido. According to this early economic model of the psyche, anxiety was understood to be an effect of repression. More than 30 years later, this essay sees Freud revising his earlier hypotheses in light of his metapsychological replacement of the economic model with the structural model. Now, rather than being produced by repression, anxiety is understood to produce repression; and rather than originating in the unconscious, anxiety originates in the ego. Specifically, anxiety is the particular unpleasant affect that is produced when the ego perceives a threat of an imminent danger which originates from either an internal or external source. As an anticipation of danger, anxiety motivates the ego to turn away and flee from the dangerous situation and keep itself safe. When the danger is external, this turning away takes the form of literal flight; when the danger originates in the psyche's id drive impulses, the ego's turning away and fleeing from the danger-situation takes the form of the deployment of a psychic defense (including, amongst others, repression).
Drawing on Darwin's theory of emotions, Freud argues that every affect repeats a previous experience which was in some way significant in the history of the species or the life of the individual. If anxiety is understood to signal the imminent presence of a dangerous situation, we can assume the danger it anticipates in the present situation refers to an earlier experience of real danger, one which left its imprint on the ego in the form of memory-traces (akin to scars) that are now being reactivated in the present. Thus, anxiety anticipates an imminent danger by reactivating a memory of an earlier experience of danger--the ego voluntarily reactivates this stored memory, actively inflicting unpleasure upon itself, in order to spare itself from an even greater unpleasure. The danger which the ego seeks to escape--the original danger which the ego once suffered and now remembers--is a situation in which the ego was overwhelmed by a large amount of libido that it was unable to regulate, and thereby suffered a trauma. Freud makes much of the fact that human babies are born 'prematurely,' so to speak, without fully-formed egos, which relegates us to a state of dependency upon adult others for the first few years of life in order to regulate our internal needs. Thus, the original experience of danger to which anxiety refers must have been an experience in which the ego felt itself to be abandoned by its caretaker--anxiety anticipates the loss of a loved object.
If we examine the course of childhood development, we can see that everyone suffers at least one indelible experience of loss, an originary separation which brings us into being: the event of birth separates us from our peaceful inherence in the womb and throws us into the world as a discrete individual. This is the relative truth of Otto Rank's theory of birth trauma--birth really does constitute an originary trauma, one whose memory-traces are reactivated over the course of our lives in every instance of anxiety, when we perceive the possibility of once again becoming as overwhelmed and helpless as we were during the experience of birth. However, Freud adds to this originary birth trauma several other layers of anxiety which correspond to different objects over the course of development. After birth, the infant will become anxious when its primary caretaker is temporarily absent; this is the child's first experience of anxiety, and it occurs in order to save the baby from falling into another danger-situation in which it was overwhelmed (since the absence of the caretaker would entail that the baby's needs would not be met, and thereby produce an overwhelming feeling of dissatisfaction and deprivation as drive energies would accumulate in its body without being able to be released). The next stage of anxiety would occur as the child is being educated by its caretakers to inhibit sexual and aggressive behaviors; here, anxiety would occur in the child's perception of sexual and aggressive impulses, which would threaten the loss of the caretakers' love if the child acted upon them (and so the child will for the first time come to repress its drives in order to retain the love of its caregivers). As the child enters the phallic stage and becomes embroiled in Oedipal conflicts, anxiety will take the form of castration anxiety; the child fears that it will be punished for its incestuous desires. As the child enters latency, it has by now introjected paternal prohibitions against sexual and aggressive drives; these prohibitions are instantiated in the form of the child's superego. Anxiety now occurs when the child experiences sexual and aggressive impulses and fears the punishment of its superego. Finally, the child's fear of the superego will become projected onto the idea of "destiny" as the child comes to fear its own death.
In each instance, anxiety motivates the ego to escape from the source of the danger. When this source is internal to the child's psyche, as in the case of the ego's perception of id drive impulses, the ego will repress the drives into the unconscious, where they will attach themselves to new ideas and return in the form of symptoms that are more likely to be accepted into the ego. Thus, symptoms express an attempt to escape from anxiety. Freud examines characterological defenses of hysterics (repression) and obsessives (reaction-formation, isolation, and undoing). In phobias, the source of danger is located in one's external environment, often attached to the fear of the father's castration as punishment for the child's sexual and aggressive impulses.
Freud revisits the case of Little Hans to show how the ego can protect itself from anxiety by deploying multiple defenses. Hans defended himself from his castration anxiety (incurred by his Oedipal hatred of his father) by splitting his father into two discrete figures: a loved and hated father. He then displaced the hated father onto the figure of a horse in order to preserve a loving relationship with his real father. In addition, he projected his own aggression into horses, coming to see them as aggressive creatures who wanted to attack him. Finally, he transformed a latent homosexual desire to be penetrated by his father's phallus into a fear of being eaten by his father--representing the defense of regression (in this case, from the phallic to the oral stage). Thus, his phobia was that he would be bitten by a horse (the full meaning of which is that the horse would bite his genitals off). Little Hans' phobia attempted to solve the problem of his ambivalent feelings towards his father, who he both loved and hated owing to his Oedipal jealousy for his mother.
One of Freud's more difficult essays, in part because of the meandering style, but also because it presumes familiarity with several of his earlier papers. The theory of anxiety offered, though, is beautiful. On the one hand, symptoms are formed to spare the ego from anxiety; on the other hand, anxiety is itself a symptom of neurosis. Freud concludes the essay by reminding us that helping a patient become conscious of the source of their anxiety is only a small part of the analytic work; the majority of analysis will involve the patient's "working through" of their unconscious attachment to their compulsion to repeat their symptom. This paper offers us an explanation of why neurotics will cling to their symptoms even as they complain of them; symptoms represent the ego's attempt to assuage its anxiety by repressing the id's drives. However, as Freud reminds us, repression always fails. It is only by helping people understand that the danger-situation they originally feared will not occur that they will come to feel comfortable letting go of their symptom and finding a new way to manage their drives.
March 27, 2018
Ο κορμός του βιβλίου και το πόσο ο Freud μένει σταθερός στην ανάλυση του θέματός του είναι εκπληκτική.
Δεν παρεκκλίνει δεν πλατειάζει και εμπλουτίζει την συγγραφή του με παραδείγματα παρμένα από την καθημερινότητα. Παρόλα αυτά η ένσταση μου είναι ότι παρόλο που επιστημονικά είναι ένα πολύ χρήσιμο εγχειρίδιο την ίδια στιγμή το βρίσκω περίπλοκο για τον απλό αναγνώστη που ενδιαφέρεται πάνω στην ψυχολογική κατάσταση του άγχους. Το θέμα εδώ δεν είναι η δύσκολη ή δυσνόητη ορολογία αλλά η πεποίθηση ότι ο αναγνώστης κατέχει ήδη σε μεγάλο βαθμό το πως λειτουργεί η ψυχοσύνθεση του ανθρώπου και εδώ αναλύεται ένα μικρό κομμάτι αυτού του όλου. Σε γενικές λοιπόν γραμμές είναι ένα χρήσιμο έργο για άτομα που ήδη έχουν επαφή με τον χώρο της ψυχολογίας-ψυχανάλυσης.
Δεν παρεκκλίνει δεν πλατειάζει και εμπλουτίζει την συγγραφή του με παραδείγματα παρμένα από την καθημερινότητα. Παρόλα αυτά η ένσταση μου είναι ότι παρόλο που επιστημονικά είναι ένα πολύ χρήσιμο εγχειρίδιο την ίδια στιγμή το βρίσκω περίπλοκο για τον απλό αναγνώστη που ενδιαφέρεται πάνω στην ψυχολογική κατάσταση του άγχους. Το θέμα εδώ δεν είναι η δύσκολη ή δυσνόητη ορολογία αλλά η πεποίθηση ότι ο αναγνώστης κατέχει ήδη σε μεγάλο βαθμό το πως λειτουργεί η ψυχοσύνθεση του ανθρώπου και εδώ αναλύεται ένα μικρό κομμάτι αυτού του όλου. Σε γενικές λοιπόν γραμμές είναι ένα χρήσιμο έργο για άτομα που ήδη έχουν επαφή με τον χώρο της ψυχολογίας-ψυχανάλυσης.
December 19, 2024
“O paciente sempre tem razão. A doença não deve ser para ele um objeto de desprezo, mas, ao contrário, um adversário respeitável, uma parte do seu ser que tem boas razões de existir e que lhe deve permitir obter ensinamentos preciosos para o futuro.”
Os conceitos, 100 anos depois, são ou batidos ou ultrapassados, mas a genialidade desse bacana é inegável. No mais, ótima didática pra falar de temas e conceitos tão complexos, um livro extremamente esclarecedor quanto aos preceitos da psicanálise e das teorias de Freud. Gostei muito!
Os conceitos, 100 anos depois, são ou batidos ou ultrapassados, mas a genialidade desse bacana é inegável. No mais, ótima didática pra falar de temas e conceitos tão complexos, um livro extremamente esclarecedor quanto aos preceitos da psicanálise e das teorias de Freud. Gostei muito!
December 2, 2016
As in the title , in this book freud discuss his view on anxiety and its origin ( he wrote about anxiety before but in this one he made some modification ) and the connection between anxiety and symptom-formation , plus some criticism of other views especially of Otto rank his ex-pupil .
I liked it because I've gained some insights into my social anxiety , although I did not understand some parts , so in general its a good read indeed .
I liked it because I've gained some insights into my social anxiety , although I did not understand some parts , so in general its a good read indeed .
July 29, 2011
I first read this in a college course, and found his body of work to be eye opening and thought provoking--although not all that easy to read--I would never have guessed that I would go on to be a psychiatrist, but he rocked my world
February 17, 2019
الكتاب دسم ويميل الي التخصص بمعني انه من الصعب ان تفهم كل ماجاء فيه بدون الاستعانه بمصادر اخري لتفهم الفكره التي اراد المؤلف ايصالها. ايضا قراءه المقدمه للمترجم دكتور محمد عثمان نجاتي مهمه جدا فهي بمثابه مدخل الي فهم وتلخيص افكار فرويد وطريقه عرضه لموضوع القلق .
الكتاب بيشير الي ان فرويد وضع نظريته الأولي حول القلق ومفاداها ان اعراض القلق تنشأ من الرغبه الجنسيه (اللبيدو ) المكبوته التي لم تشبع . ففي نظر فرويد كبت الرغبه الغريزيه الجنسيه وعدم تفريغها هي المسبب الرئيسي في حالات القلق حتي عند الأطفال وقد طور فرويد نظريته بعد قدرته علي تمييز العمليات النفسيه الموجوده في الأنا (كل ماهو في العقل الانساني ويشرف علي الحركه الاراديه الواعيه ) والهو او الهي ( كل ما في العقل الانساني من موروثات وهو جبلي و غريزي في الطبيعه الانسانيه وهو ايضا غامض ولا شعوري ) .وتشير نظريه فرويد الثانيه الي ان القلق ينشأ في الأنا كميكانزم دفاعي او كرد فعل لخطر غريزي داخلي وهو مايسبب الكبت للرغبه الغريزيه.
من وجهه نظري فرويد مصاب بsexual obsession ففياحد فصول الكتاب يحاول فرويد باسلوب التحليل النفسي تفسير ظاهره الخوف من الحيوانات لطفل عمره خمسه سنوات عن طريق ان الطفل كان يمر بمرحله عقده اوديب (بمعني حب الولد لأمه وكرهه لأبيه وغيرته منه)بماتتضمنه من مشاعر الغيره والعداء نحو ابيه . فالطفل يكن لأبيه حب عميق وبغض شديد وهذا ما انتج عند الطفل خوف مرضي عند محاولته حل هذا التناقض الوجداني . واثناء تحليل حاله الطفل بشكل اعمق قد استطاع فرويد ان يستنتج ان دافع البغض نحو ابيه تمثل في ان الطفل رأي ذات مره صديق له يسقط ويُجرح اثناء اللعب مع احد الخيول ففسر ذلك بان الطفل تمني ان يسقط والده ويجرح كما سقط صديقه . وما سَبّب ظاهره القلق ان تظهر في حاله الطفل هي ان الطفل قرر ان يكبت شعوره الغريزي خوفا من ابيه ان يقوم باخصائه .وفي موضع اخر رفض فرويد الاسغناء عن تفسيراته لأهميه العوامل الجنسيه في نشؤ اعراض العصاب فيما كان الكثير من الأطباء النفسيين المعاصرين له يدللون علي ذلك مشيرين بأمثله ظهرت أثناء الحرب العالميه وكان دليلهم علي ان اعراض العصاب ناشئه عن اي تهديد لغريزه البقاء بدون الحاجه الي اي فروض جنسيه معقده تفرضها مدرسه التحليل النفسي . واصر فرويد علي انه من غير المحتمل ان ينشأ العصاب لمجرد وجود خطر فعلي بدون اي تدخل من المستويات العميقه للجهاز العقلي.
وفي أحيان اخري شعرت بالتناقض الشديد فحينما تحدث عن العصاب القهري الذي هو في حقيقته مرض نفسي يتسلط فيه اوهام ووساوس ومخاوف علي المريض مما يؤدي الي إتيانه ببعض الأفعال والحركات اللاراديه - فهو يناقض نفسه ففي وصفه للعصاب القهري يذكر فرود اننا يجب ان نعترف اننا اذا حاولنا ان نتعمق في معرفه طبيعه المرض لكان علينا ان نأتي بالفروض المشكوك فيها وبعض التخمينات التي ينقصها الدليل . نجد انه بكل ثقه يفسر طبيعه المرض علي انه بلا شك نتيجه لصد الرغبات الجنسيه الخاصه بعقده أوديب التي تكونت في مراحل مبكره جدا في عمر المريض.
بالنسبه لي الكتاب جيد في محاوله فهم افكار فرويد في اطار تاريخ مدارس علم النفس وبالأخص مدرسه فينا للتحليل النفسي فانا لا اظن ان أفكار فرويد قائمه وتطبق في دوائر الطب النفسي فقد الف فرويد هذا الكتاب منذ مايقرب من ٩٤ عاما .
الكتاب بيشير الي ان فرويد وضع نظريته الأولي حول القلق ومفاداها ان اعراض القلق تنشأ من الرغبه الجنسيه (اللبيدو ) المكبوته التي لم تشبع . ففي نظر فرويد كبت الرغبه الغريزيه الجنسيه وعدم تفريغها هي المسبب الرئيسي في حالات القلق حتي عند الأطفال وقد طور فرويد نظريته بعد قدرته علي تمييز العمليات النفسيه الموجوده في الأنا (كل ماهو في العقل الانساني ويشرف علي الحركه الاراديه الواعيه ) والهو او الهي ( كل ما في العقل الانساني من موروثات وهو جبلي و غريزي في الطبيعه الانسانيه وهو ايضا غامض ولا شعوري ) .وتشير نظريه فرويد الثانيه الي ان القلق ينشأ في الأنا كميكانزم دفاعي او كرد فعل لخطر غريزي داخلي وهو مايسبب الكبت للرغبه الغريزيه.
من وجهه نظري فرويد مصاب بsexual obsession ففياحد فصول الكتاب يحاول فرويد باسلوب التحليل النفسي تفسير ظاهره الخوف من الحيوانات لطفل عمره خمسه سنوات عن طريق ان الطفل كان يمر بمرحله عقده اوديب (بمعني حب الولد لأمه وكرهه لأبيه وغيرته منه)بماتتضمنه من مشاعر الغيره والعداء نحو ابيه . فالطفل يكن لأبيه حب عميق وبغض شديد وهذا ما انتج عند الطفل خوف مرضي عند محاولته حل هذا التناقض الوجداني . واثناء تحليل حاله الطفل بشكل اعمق قد استطاع فرويد ان يستنتج ان دافع البغض نحو ابيه تمثل في ان الطفل رأي ذات مره صديق له يسقط ويُجرح اثناء اللعب مع احد الخيول ففسر ذلك بان الطفل تمني ان يسقط والده ويجرح كما سقط صديقه . وما سَبّب ظاهره القلق ان تظهر في حاله الطفل هي ان الطفل قرر ان يكبت شعوره الغريزي خوفا من ابيه ان يقوم باخصائه .وفي موضع اخر رفض فرويد الاسغناء عن تفسيراته لأهميه العوامل الجنسيه في نشؤ اعراض العصاب فيما كان الكثير من الأطباء النفسيين المعاصرين له يدللون علي ذلك مشيرين بأمثله ظهرت أثناء الحرب العالميه وكان دليلهم علي ان اعراض العصاب ناشئه عن اي تهديد لغريزه البقاء بدون الحاجه الي اي فروض جنسيه معقده تفرضها مدرسه التحليل النفسي . واصر فرويد علي انه من غير المحتمل ان ينشأ العصاب لمجرد وجود خطر فعلي بدون اي تدخل من المستويات العميقه للجهاز العقلي.
وفي أحيان اخري شعرت بالتناقض الشديد فحينما تحدث عن العصاب القهري الذي هو في حقيقته مرض نفسي يتسلط فيه اوهام ووساوس ومخاوف علي المريض مما يؤدي الي إتيانه ببعض الأفعال والحركات اللاراديه - فهو يناقض نفسه ففي وصفه للعصاب القهري يذكر فرود اننا يجب ان نعترف اننا اذا حاولنا ان نتعمق في معرفه طبيعه المرض لكان علينا ان نأتي بالفروض المشكوك فيها وبعض التخمينات التي ينقصها الدليل . نجد انه بكل ثقه يفسر طبيعه المرض علي انه بلا شك نتيجه لصد الرغبات الجنسيه الخاصه بعقده أوديب التي تكونت في مراحل مبكره جدا في عمر المريض.
بالنسبه لي الكتاب جيد في محاوله فهم افكار فرويد في اطار تاريخ مدارس علم النفس وبالأخص مدرسه فينا للتحليل النفسي فانا لا اظن ان أفكار فرويد قائمه وتطبق في دوائر الطب النفسي فقد الف فرويد هذا الكتاب منذ مايقرب من ٩٤ عاما .
May 19, 2023
The main point of this long, scattered, and technical paper is a reconsideration of anxiety, which Freud now suggests is the "fundamental phenomenon and main problem of neurosis."
Before, he thought that a neurotic represses the representation of a forbidden sexual wish from consciousness but cannot repress the affect invested in the representation: that affect then transforms into anxiety, and the rule of thumb is that if someone is neurotically anxious, they are repressing a wish related to what they're anxious about.
Now, using his updated structural theory of the mind and drives, he somewhat agrees with common sense in saying anxiety is a response to a danger situation. Most importantly, neurotic anxiety is the ego's response to an internal danger situation instigated by the superego because of an id impulse it forbids; to avoid the hostility of the superego, the ego defends against the impulse.
While his earlier theory still has value, this new theory of anxiety is more useful clinically and richer theoretically. However, the basic idea in both theories is that anxiety is related to unconscious conflict, and whether the chicken or the egg comes first makes little difference in my mind.
Another insightful section of the book is on separation anxiety, anxiety at loss of the object, and castration anxiety, which Freud arranges in a developmental progression from the early, pre-Oedipal to the Oedipal period. One must remember, however, as Freud does that these anxieties cannot be completely demarcated and that any adult has a good deal of all three while at the same time castration anxiety (the result of the Oedipus complex, the end of which determines the formation of the superego) is the most important as well as the most unconscious.
Many other paths in the paper go nowhere. Freud spends a lot of time (yet again) going into detail about the psychopathology of obsessional neurosis and phobias and it's not very clear or engaging; he also takes up Otto Rank's theory of birth trauma for some reason and argues unconvincingly in lukewarm support of its claim that birth is the primary experience of which the affect of anxiety is a revival.
Before, he thought that a neurotic represses the representation of a forbidden sexual wish from consciousness but cannot repress the affect invested in the representation: that affect then transforms into anxiety, and the rule of thumb is that if someone is neurotically anxious, they are repressing a wish related to what they're anxious about.
Now, using his updated structural theory of the mind and drives, he somewhat agrees with common sense in saying anxiety is a response to a danger situation. Most importantly, neurotic anxiety is the ego's response to an internal danger situation instigated by the superego because of an id impulse it forbids; to avoid the hostility of the superego, the ego defends against the impulse.
While his earlier theory still has value, this new theory of anxiety is more useful clinically and richer theoretically. However, the basic idea in both theories is that anxiety is related to unconscious conflict, and whether the chicken or the egg comes first makes little difference in my mind.
Another insightful section of the book is on separation anxiety, anxiety at loss of the object, and castration anxiety, which Freud arranges in a developmental progression from the early, pre-Oedipal to the Oedipal period. One must remember, however, as Freud does that these anxieties cannot be completely demarcated and that any adult has a good deal of all three while at the same time castration anxiety (the result of the Oedipus complex, the end of which determines the formation of the superego) is the most important as well as the most unconscious.
Many other paths in the paper go nowhere. Freud spends a lot of time (yet again) going into detail about the psychopathology of obsessional neurosis and phobias and it's not very clear or engaging; he also takes up Otto Rank's theory of birth trauma for some reason and argues unconvincingly in lukewarm support of its claim that birth is the primary experience of which the affect of anxiety is a revival.
November 21, 2021
Textul de faţă reprezintă redarea stenogramei, revăzute de Freud, a conferinţei ţinută de acesta la Clubul Medical din Viena. Conţinutul acestei conferinţe rezumă temele abordate în „Comunicare preliminară“ semnată de el şi de Breuer, cu care se deschide lucrarea Studii despre isterie. Se pare că prezentarea acestei conferinţe a avut loc cu câteva zile înainte de publicarea separată a părţii a doua din „Comunicarea preliminară“. În afară de tema anunţată încă din titlu, adică marcarea „mecanismelor psihice“ ale isteriei, acest articol conţine şi o descriere foarte documentată a meto-
dei cathartice de tratament, precursoarea tratamentului psihanalitic. Efectul curativ al catharsisului este explicat prin teoria „abreacţiei“, iar descrierea acestui fenomen este o foarte bună ilustrare a principiul constanţei enunţat de fiziologul Gustav Fechner, respectiv tendinţa psihicului de a păstra la un nivel constant energia care îi stă la dispoziţie. Orice încărcare va tinde deci imediat să fie descărcată, iar, dacă acest lucru nu este posibil, apar disfuncţionalităţi care ţin de patologic. Persistenţa încărcăturii psihice declanşează isteria. Aici apare faimosul adagiu: „Istericul suferă
de reminescenţe“. Prelegerea conţine deopotrivă punctele de vedere ale lui Breuer şi Freud, însă şi momentul în care teoriile lor se vor despărţi – este vorba despre etiologia isteriei. Dacă Breuer va susţine întotdeauna că isteria se produce având la bază intervenţia unui factor traumatogen într-un moment în care individul se află într-o stare asemănătoare hipnozei – „hipnoidă“ –, Freud este de părere că factorul traumatogen nu este atât evenimentul, cât ceea ce se întâmplă cu afectul declanşat de el, iar patogenă este incapacitatea sau imposibilitatea subiectului de a descărca acest afect. Este vorba despre ceea ce Freud va numi mai târziu „apărare“ – reprezentarea ataşată afectului este refulată, iar afectul rămâne să îşi desfăşoare acţiunea patogenă.
dei cathartice de tratament, precursoarea tratamentului psihanalitic. Efectul curativ al catharsisului este explicat prin teoria „abreacţiei“, iar descrierea acestui fenomen este o foarte bună ilustrare a principiul constanţei enunţat de fiziologul Gustav Fechner, respectiv tendinţa psihicului de a păstra la un nivel constant energia care îi stă la dispoziţie. Orice încărcare va tinde deci imediat să fie descărcată, iar, dacă acest lucru nu este posibil, apar disfuncţionalităţi care ţin de patologic. Persistenţa încărcăturii psihice declanşează isteria. Aici apare faimosul adagiu: „Istericul suferă
de reminescenţe“. Prelegerea conţine deopotrivă punctele de vedere ale lui Breuer şi Freud, însă şi momentul în care teoriile lor se vor despărţi – este vorba despre etiologia isteriei. Dacă Breuer va susţine întotdeauna că isteria se produce având la bază intervenţia unui factor traumatogen într-un moment în care individul se află într-o stare asemănătoare hipnozei – „hipnoidă“ –, Freud este de părere că factorul traumatogen nu este atât evenimentul, cât ceea ce se întâmplă cu afectul declanşat de el, iar patogenă este incapacitatea sau imposibilitatea subiectului de a descărca acest afect. Este vorba despre ceea ce Freud va numi mai târziu „apărare“ – reprezentarea ataşată afectului este refulată, iar afectul rămâne să îşi desfăşoare acţiunea patogenă.
December 11, 2023
Anxiety originates from our original separation from our mothers and is essentially a remembering of this primordial experience with non-satisfaction and helplessness. Castration anxiety seems to be a repetition and disguising of this primordial separation from a lost valued object. ("Here anxiety appears as a reaction to the felt loss of the object; and we are at once reminded of the fact that castration anxiety, too, is a fear of being separated from a highly valued object, and that the earliest anxiety of all - the "primal anxiety" of birth - is brought about on occasion of a separation from the mother.") (pg. 137)
connection of anxiety and trauma with helplessness. distinguishing danger-situation from trauma-situation. Danger-situation is a "recognized, remembered, expected situation of helplessness" (pg. 166). Trauma-situation is when the "subject's estimation of his own strength compared to the magnitude of the danger and in his admission of helplessness in the face of it - physical helplessness if the danger is real and psychical helplessness if it is instinctual") (pg. 166).
We want to safeguard against non-satisfaction: "The situation, then, which it regards as a 'danger' and against which it wants to be safeguarded is that of non-satisfaction, of a growing tension due to need, against which it is helpless." (pg. 137) There is an inner tension within us when we need to be satiated that is highly disagreeable and uncomfortable that we want to be rid of. Anxiety is meant as a signal to the body(/ego) to avoid such a disagreeable state. ("We cannot find that anxiety has any function other than that of being a signal for the avoidance of a danger-situation.") (pg. 138)
This all seems to me essentially an unfolding of the meaning of the pleasure principle. We want to maximize pleasure and we want to avoid (minimize) pain. Anxiety is the affect associated with one of the fundamental directives of the subject, namely avoiding pain.
connection of anxiety and trauma with helplessness. distinguishing danger-situation from trauma-situation. Danger-situation is a "recognized, remembered, expected situation of helplessness" (pg. 166). Trauma-situation is when the "subject's estimation of his own strength compared to the magnitude of the danger and in his admission of helplessness in the face of it - physical helplessness if the danger is real and psychical helplessness if it is instinctual") (pg. 166).
We want to safeguard against non-satisfaction: "The situation, then, which it regards as a 'danger' and against which it wants to be safeguarded is that of non-satisfaction, of a growing tension due to need, against which it is helpless." (pg. 137) There is an inner tension within us when we need to be satiated that is highly disagreeable and uncomfortable that we want to be rid of. Anxiety is meant as a signal to the body(/ego) to avoid such a disagreeable state. ("We cannot find that anxiety has any function other than that of being a signal for the avoidance of a danger-situation.") (pg. 138)
This all seems to me essentially an unfolding of the meaning of the pleasure principle. We want to maximize pleasure and we want to avoid (minimize) pain. Anxiety is the affect associated with one of the fundamental directives of the subject, namely avoiding pain.
July 7, 2022
This book is a great series of reflections on the phenomenon of 'regression,' in which we get a sophisticated recasting of obsessional neurosis as a repetition of the stages of infantile libidinal development; the originary genesis of the superego seems to be relived at moments of crisis. Regression becomes the specific defence mechanism that allows for a more general dissemination of 'repetition' as the underlying structure of neurotic life. Things are always coming back and starting again. In the primary thesis of the latter half of the book, this also applies to anxiety, which begins with the initial moment of infantile helplessness, and is then repeated and transformed, internalised and worked out, in the libidinal stages of development, the castration complex, and the development of the superego and an internal moral sense. Each moment reinvents anxiety for the subject. Freud takes his time saying this but it's both a straightforward and elegant thesis. The book however is modest and circularly structured, going back over its claims, retracting, citing at length other analysts, and so on, and it ends extremely anticlimactically with no real conclusion or summing up. The supplementary remarks do not help the impression that it is an unfinished text.
March 4, 2023
Κατά τη γνώμη μου, από τα πιο δυσνόητα έργα του Freud, και οπωσδήποτε στερείται της κομψότητας της Εισαγωγής στην ψυχανάλυση ή της ερμηνείας των ονείρων. Επιπλέον έχουν αρχίσει να αποστασιοποιούνται οι μαθητές και γι αυτό κάνει κριτική, δριμύτερη απέναντι στον Adler, ηπιότερη απέναντι στον Rank.
"Για αναστολή μιλάμε όταν υπάρχει κάποια απλή μείωση λειτουργίας, ενώ για σύμπτωμα όταν μία λειτουργία έχει υποστεί κάποια ασυνήθιστη μεταβολή ή επιτελεί κάποια νέα απόδοση."
"Γενικά η λειτουργία του Εγώ ενός οργάνου εξασθενεί όταν αυξάνεται η ιδιότητα του ερωτογενούς, δηλαδή η σεξουαλική σημασία του."
"Το εγώ είναι η καθαυτή έδρα του άγχους."
"Το Εγώ ταυτίζεται με το Αυτό, είναι απλώς ένα ειδικά διαφοροποιημένο τμήμα αυτού... το ίδιο ισχύει για τη σχέση του Εγώ με το Υπερεγώ, σε πολλές καταστάσεις αυτά τα δύο συγχωνεύονται... το Εγώ είναι ακριβώς το οργανωμένο τμήμα του Αυτό."
"Το Εγώ είναι φιλειρηνικό και επιθυμεί να ενσωματώσει το σύμπτωμα, να το εντάξει στην οργάνωση του."
" Τα συμπτώματα της ψυχαναγκαστικής νεύρωσης εμπίπτουν γενικά σε δύο ομάδες, είτε είναι απαγορεύσεις, μέτρα προφύλαξης και μεταμέλειας ή αντίθετα είναι υποκατάστατες ικανοποιήσεις."
"Ο έρωτας επιθυμεί την επαφή διότι επιδιώκει την ένωση, την άρση των χωρικών συνόρων, αλλά και η καταστροφή προϋποθέτει τη σωματική επαφή."
"Στην ψυχαναγκαστική νεύρωση η κατάσταση κινδύνου που πρέπει να αποφύγει το Εγώ είναι η εχθρότητα του Υπερεγώ."
"Στο ασυνείδητο δεν υπάρχει τίποτα που να μπορεί να δώσει περιεχόμενο στην έννοια της εκμηδένισης της ζωής... το έμβρυο είναι ένα απόλυτα ναρκισσιστικό ον, είναι εντελώς ανίδεο για την ύπαρξη της μητέρας ως αντικείμενο. "
"Τείνουμε να θεωρούμε τις καταστάσεις άγχους ως αναπαραγωγές του τραύματος της γέννησης... όταν το παιδί είναι μόνο του, όταν βρίσκεται στο σκοτάδι ή όταν βρίσκει ένα άγνωστο άτομο στη θέση του οικείου, αυτές οι τρεις περιπτώσεις ανάγονται σε ένα και μοναδικό όρο, την απώλεια του αγαπημένου ατόμου..... το άγχος εμφανίζεται ως προϊόν της ψυχικής ανημπόριας του βρέφους η οποία είναι το αυτονόητο αντίστοιχο της βιολογικής ανημπόριας."
"Το άγχος είναι μία συναισθηματική κατάσταση και ως τέτοια μπορεί φυσικά να γίνεται αισθητή μόνο από το Εγώ. Το Αυτό δεν μπορεί να έχει άγχος καθώς δεν αποτελεί οργάνωση και δεν μπορεί να κρίνει τις καταστάσεις κινδύνου."
"Ο κίνδυνος της ψυχικής ανημποριάς αναλογεί στην εποχή της ανωριμότητας του Εγώ, ο κίνδυνος απώλειας αντικειμένων στην έλλειψη αυτονομίας των πρώτων παιδικών χρόνων, ο κίνδυνος ευνουχισμού στο φαλλικό στάδιο και το άγχος απέναντι στο υπερεγώ στη λανθάνουσα περίοδο."
"Η απώθηση δεν αποτελεί διεργασία που γίνεται μία φορά αλλά απαιτεί συνεχή δαπάνη ενέργειας... η αντίσταση εμφανίζεται με τη μορφή μιας μεταβολής του Εγώ μέσω μιας ενίσχυσης της τάσης που είναι αντίθετη προς τη ορμική κατεύθυνση και που πρέπει να απωθηθεί."
"Ο αντικειμενικός κίνδυνος είναι ένας κίνδυνος που γνωρίζουμε, και το άγχος ενώπιον της πραγματικότητας είναι άγχος μπροστά σε έναν τέτοιο γνωστό κίνδυνο. Το νευρωτικό άγχος είναι άγχος μπροστά σε έναν άγνωστο κίνδυνο."
"Για αναστολή μιλάμε όταν υπάρχει κάποια απλή μείωση λειτουργίας, ενώ για σύμπτωμα όταν μία λειτουργία έχει υποστεί κάποια ασυνήθιστη μεταβολή ή επιτελεί κάποια νέα απόδοση."
"Γενικά η λειτουργία του Εγώ ενός οργάνου εξασθενεί όταν αυξάνεται η ιδιότητα του ερωτογενούς, δηλαδή η σεξουαλική σημασία του."
"Το εγώ είναι η καθαυτή έδρα του άγχους."
"Το Εγώ ταυτίζεται με το Αυτό, είναι απλώς ένα ειδικά διαφοροποιημένο τμήμα αυτού... το ίδιο ισχύει για τη σχέση του Εγώ με το Υπερεγώ, σε πολλές καταστάσεις αυτά τα δύο συγχωνεύονται... το Εγώ είναι ακριβώς το οργανωμένο τμήμα του Αυτό."
"Το Εγώ είναι φιλειρηνικό και επιθυμεί να ενσωματώσει το σύμπτωμα, να το εντάξει στην οργάνωση του."
" Τα συμπτώματα της ψυχαναγκαστικής νεύρωσης εμπίπτουν γενικά σε δύο ομάδες, είτε είναι απαγορεύσεις, μέτρα προφύλαξης και μεταμέλειας ή αντίθετα είναι υποκατάστατες ικανοποιήσεις."
"Ο έρωτας επιθυμεί την επαφή διότι επιδιώκει την ένωση, την άρση των χωρικών συνόρων, αλλά και η καταστροφή προϋποθέτει τη σωματική επαφή."
"Στην ψυχαναγκαστική νεύρωση η κατάσταση κινδύνου που πρέπει να αποφύγει το Εγώ είναι η εχθρότητα του Υπερεγώ."
"Στο ασυνείδητο δεν υπάρχει τίποτα που να μπορεί να δώσει περιεχόμενο στην έννοια της εκμηδένισης της ζωής... το έμβρυο είναι ένα απόλυτα ναρκισσιστικό ον, είναι εντελώς ανίδεο για την ύπαρξη της μητέρας ως αντικείμενο. "
"Τείνουμε να θεωρούμε τις καταστάσεις άγχους ως αναπαραγωγές του τραύματος της γέννησης... όταν το παιδί είναι μόνο του, όταν βρίσκεται στο σκοτάδι ή όταν βρίσκει ένα άγνωστο άτομο στη θέση του οικείου, αυτές οι τρεις περιπτώσεις ανάγονται σε ένα και μοναδικό όρο, την απώλεια του αγαπημένου ατόμου..... το άγχος εμφανίζεται ως προϊόν της ψυχικής ανημπόριας του βρέφους η οποία είναι το αυτονόητο αντίστοιχο της βιολογικής ανημπόριας."
"Το άγχος είναι μία συναισθηματική κατάσταση και ως τέτοια μπορεί φυσικά να γίνεται αισθητή μόνο από το Εγώ. Το Αυτό δεν μπορεί να έχει άγχος καθώς δεν αποτελεί οργάνωση και δεν μπορεί να κρίνει τις καταστάσεις κινδύνου."
"Ο κίνδυνος της ψυχικής ανημποριάς αναλογεί στην εποχή της ανωριμότητας του Εγώ, ο κίνδυνος απώλειας αντικειμένων στην έλλειψη αυτονομίας των πρώτων παιδικών χρόνων, ο κίνδυνος ευνουχισμού στο φαλλικό στάδιο και το άγχος απέναντι στο υπερεγώ στη λανθάνουσα περίοδο."
"Η απώθηση δεν αποτελεί διεργασία που γίνεται μία φορά αλλά απαιτεί συνεχή δαπάνη ενέργειας... η αντίσταση εμφανίζεται με τη μορφή μιας μεταβολής του Εγώ μέσω μιας ενίσχυσης της τάσης που είναι αντίθετη προς τη ορμική κατεύθυνση και που πρέπει να απωθηθεί."
"Ο αντικειμενικός κίνδυνος είναι ένας κίνδυνος που γνωρίζουμε, και το άγχος ενώπιον της πραγματικότητας είναι άγχος μπροστά σε έναν τέτοιο γνωστό κίνδυνο. Το νευρωτικό άγχος είναι άγχος μπροστά σε έναν άγνωστο κίνδυνο."
May 11, 2018
Πολύ ενδιαφέρον ανάγνωσμα. Η πρώτη μου εντύπωση ήταν λίγο αμήχανη, καθώς δεν έχω διαβάσει πολλές σχετικές μελέτες και αρχικά δυσκολεύτηκα να προσαρμοστώ στην επιστημονική γραφή και τις έννοιες που χρησιμοποιούνται ή/και αναλύονται, γρήγορα όμως μου κίνησε το ενδιαφέρον. Δεν μπορώ να ισχυριστώ ότι είμαι σε θέση να αναπαραγάγω το περιεχόμενο λεπτομερώς ούτε να χρησιμοποιήσω σωστά όλη την ορολογία της μελέτης, ωστόσο μου έδωσε πολλή τροφή για σκέψη και περαιτέρω αναζήτηση, αλλά και πολλές απαντήσεις. Το συνιστώ.
January 20, 2018
By this point, in the third essay in an unofficial trilogy begun with Beyond the Pleasure Principle and The Ego and the Id, I'm uncertain if Freud is contributing something of value or just nerding out on the details. Regardless, it's a relief to see him moving further away from his explanation of the libido being such a prevailing source of issues. The book is well written, but be prepared for some dense writing.
August 30, 2025
A bit of a mess, but Freud finds himself in a polemic position which he might have needed for mental sharpness. His revision on anxiety is controversial, but to me anchors him back from speculation and more importantly makes sense.
February 6, 2019
فيه حاجات مش فاهمها
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews