The three types of anxiety according to Sigmund Freud

Anxiety according to Sigmund Freud, arises as a result of mental conflict. It would be like a “toxic transformation” of our energies, of a It that he needs certain things and that he cannot achieve or satisfy. Also those obsessions that we often hide and that bring us unjustified fears or even the persistent shadow of certain entrenched traumas.

Beyond the time that has passed since those first foundations of the psychoanalytic approach were laid (back in 1896), there is a fact that we cannot underestimate. Even leaving aside his controversial theories about libido or sexual repression, Something we must thank Freud for was his determination to cure what he called “neurotic anxiety.”

Although it is true that today we work on this dimension from many more approaches, this neurologist and father of psychoanalysis was one of the pioneers in exploring the unconscious phenomena of the human mind. So, something that He realized very early on that if there was a condition that excessively affected human beings, it was anxiety. Few conditions were so exhausting, few situations took away the reins of control over their own lives.

Freud laid the foundations for many of the theories that we have continued to develop today. For him, anxiety was an indisputable part of his theory of personality and as such he dedicated extensive work to it, a very extensive journey that was reflected in a good part of his publications.

Types of anxiety according to Sigmund Freud

In Sigmund Freud’s topographic model of personality, the I It is that part of our being that is related to reality. However, this task is not always easy. Firstly, it is not because constant conflicts and frictions arise, disagreements with our deepest desires, with our instincts and also with certain unconscious facts… Secondly, all these negative unconscious dynamics often generate certain mental disorders.

To talk about the types of anxiety according to Sigmund Freud is to refer to those psychic instances that make up our mental processes. Thus, in addition to I mentioned above, we have It, that psychic expression where our drives and desires are contained. Likewise, our busy I must also deal with superegothat moral and idealistic instance that according to this approach is there to judge us, to be that vigilant and sanctioning “big brother.”

Anxiety arises as a result of all that clash of forces. A mental and emotional conflict that leads us to situations that can lead to what Freud called neurotic behaviors and psychotic behaviors. Let’s see, however, those three types of anxiety that psychoanalysis established in its first years.

1. Realistic anxiety

Among the three types of anxiety according to Sigmund Freud, the one we will most identify with will be the “realistic” one.. This arises as a reaction to a concrete, objective and above all real fact. There are fears that can appear in us at a given moment for a very specific purpose: to encourage us to flee from what is harmful, from what threatens our integrity, our survival.

2. Neurotic anxiety

Neurotic or secondary anxiety arises from the anticipation of events or circumstances. We react to facts, thoughts and ideas that only have reality in our mind, but not outside of it, not in our environment. Thus, faced with that fear that arises in our psyche, we deploy a whole series of defensive processes: nervousness, need to escape, lack of control…

Freud saw the origin of this type of anxiety in our It. In our frustrated desires, in our buried instincts but eager to be satisfied in an always limited reality. In addition, In addition to these unconscious drives there are our fears, those that according to psychoanalysis we carry from our childhood in the form of unelaborated traumas.. Therefore, they would be conflicting mental states that would take away the opportunity to be happy, to allow our “I” to show itself freely and authentically.

3. Moral anxiety

Perhaps, among the three types of anxiety according to Sigmund Freud, the one that arouses the most strangeness in us is the one that refers to morality. However, to understand it we are going to relate some examples. Let’s think about the son who, at a given moment, thinks that he has let his parents down by not becoming what they wanted. Let’s also think about the employee who does not feel capable of achieving the company’s objectives.

According to psychoanalysis, this anguish, this anxiety comes from the influence of the superego.. It is that internal social world that we all have where our “shoulds”, our “unconscious commands” and that fear or shame of failure or even punishment in any of its forms are orchestrated (discredit, heartbreak, layoffs, loneliness…).

Manifestations of anxiety

Anxiety can be expressed in different ways, from localized situations or certain objects -as in phobias- to a chronic feeling of generalized anxiety.

Cases of localized anxiety They are usually evidenced by avoidant behaviors that reduce, to a greater or lesser degree, the individual’s freedom to develop in his or her life.

For its part, generalized and chronic anxiety is a source of considerable suffering for those who feel it. Well, These people are constantly hypervigilant in response to a feeling of danger.which is internal and often unconscious

To conclude, we are sure that these types of anxiety according to Freud will be well known to us. Beyond that architecture of the personality erected in those three games of force of the ego, id and superego, There is a basis that we continue to accept today: mental conflict. To talk about anxiety is to refer to an internal crisis, to a moment where reality surpasses us, and where the mind runs wild in directions that we do not even understand.

Calming it, giving it balance, control and meaning requires time and appropriate strategies. The same ones that many of the therapeutic approaches that we currently have.

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