NORMAL AND NEUROTIC ANXIETY

Video: NORMAL AND NEUROTIC ANXIETY

Video: NORMAL AND NEUROTIC ANXIETY
Video: Rollo May-Anxiety;Normal and Neurotic 2024, March
NORMAL AND NEUROTIC ANXIETY
NORMAL AND NEUROTIC ANXIETY
Anonim

Normal anxiety is a reaction that:

a) adequate to the objective hazard;

b) does not include the repression mechanism or other mechanisms associated with intrapersonal conflict, and as a result;

c) a person copes with anxiety without resorting to neurotic defense mechanisms.

At the same time, a person is able to constructively cope with anxiety at a conscious level, or anxiety decreases when the threatening situation changes. Diffuse and infant reactions to danger, such as falling or not being fed, are also normal anxieties. The child experiencing such situations is still too young, so that the intrapsychic mechanisms of repression and conflict that create neurotic anxiety do not work yet. Normal anxiety or, as Z. Freud called it, "objective anxiety" accompanies people throughout their lives. General anxiety and alertness are indicators of this anxiety.

The existence of normal anxiety in adults can go unnoticed, since this experience is usually not as strong as neurotic anxiety. In addition, since normal anxiety can be constructively overcome, it does not manifest itself in panic reactions or in any other vivid forms. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of such a reaction should not be confused. The strength of the reaction makes it possible to distinguish normal from neurotic anxiety only when a person asks himself the question whether the reaction is adequate to the objective threat. In the course of their lives, people, to a greater or lesser extent, are faced with situations that endanger their existence or values that are vital for their existence. Under normal conditions, an individual can constructively use anxiety as a learning experience without interfering with normal development.

A common form of anxiety is associated with the presence of a factor of chance in human life - with the fact that life is subject to the forces of nature, that it is influenced by wars, illness, overwork, that life can end suddenly as a result of an accident.

In practice, it is very difficult to distinguish the normal component of anxiety from the neurotic, when it comes to, for example, death or other accidental factors that threaten human life. Most people have both types of anxiety at the same time. Numerous forms of anxiety that are associated with fear of death are neurotic in nature, such as a greater preoccupation with death during adolescent depression. Any form of neurotic anxiety - in adolescents, the elderly, and generally at any age - can revolve around the fact of imminent death, this symbol of helplessness and powerlessness of a person.

Normal anxiety in the face of death does not necessarily lead to depression or melancholy. Like any other form of normal anxiety, it can be used constructively. The realization that we will ultimately face separation from loved ones reinforces the desire to strengthen our bonds with people right now. The normal anxiety that accompanies the idea that sooner or later a person will no longer be able to act, makes him, like death itself, more responsibly treat his time, and the current moment brightens and teaches us to use the time of life more effectively.

Another common form of normal anxiety is related to the fact that each person develops around other people. The example of a growing up child most clearly shows that this development in the context of relationships with parents presupposes a gradual rupture of ties, which leads to more or less intense crises and to collisions with loved ones. The experience of separation from other people is always accompanied by normal anxiety, and this happens throughout life - from the moment when the child is separated from the mother, cutting his umbilical cord, and ending with separation from human existence in death.

If, in the process of development, a person successfully passes these stages, which are associated with anxiety, this not only leads him, as a child, to greater independence, but also allows him to re-build relationships with parents and other people at a new, more mature level. In these cases, the person also experiences normal and not neurotic anxiety.

But it is known that people very often experience anxiety in situations that do not contain the slightest objective danger. People experiencing this type of anxiety may themselves say that the anxiety is associated with minor events and that their fears are "stupid". Sometimes these people may even be angry with themselves for the fact that a trifle worries him so much; however, the anxiety does not disappear anywhere.

In order to define neurotic anxiety, one can start from the definition of normal anxiety. Neurotic anxiety is a reaction to danger, which a) is inadequate to the objective danger, b) includes repression, dissociation and other manifestations of intrapsychic conflict and, therefore, c) a person limits his actions, narrows the field of consciousness using various mechanisms.

The characteristic features of neurotic anxiety are interrelated: the reaction is inadequate to the objective danger for the reason that an intrapsychic conflict is involved. Thus, it cannot be said that the reaction is inadequate to the subjective danger. In addition, it can be noted that all of the above characteristics of neurotic anxiety relate to the subjective side of a person. It follows from this that the definition of neurotic anxiety can be given only with a subjective approach, when intrapsychic processes are taken into account.

Neurotic anxiety arises in situations where a person cannot cope with a danger not objectively, but subjectively, that is, not because of an objective lack of opportunities, but because of intrapsychic conflicts that prevent a person from using their capabilities. Most often, these conflicts are formed in the past of a person, in early childhood, when the child, for objective reasons, was not yet able to cope with a dangerous interpersonal situation. At the same time, the child is not able to consciously identify the source of the conflict. Thus, repression of the object of anxiety is the main characteristic of neurotic anxiety.

And although initially repression is associated with relationships with parents, later repression is exposed to all threats that are similar to the original. And since repression is at work, a person is not able to understand what exactly causes his anxiety; thus, neurotic anxiety is also devoid of an object for this reason. In neurotic anxiety, repression or dissociation makes the person even more sensitive to danger, which, therefore, increases neurotic anxiety. First, defense mechanisms create internal opposition, which undermines the psychological balance. Secondly, because of this, it is difficult for a person to see the real danger with which he could cope. Defense mechanisms increase helplessness, since a person is forced to roll back the boundaries of his independence, set himself internal restrictions and refuse to use his strength.

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