ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how anxiety and depression are central to subject-formation and that potential psychopathological effects have to do with the way they are-or are not-processed in relation to the Other. It explains how each is connected with another central clinical phenomenon, namely, guilt. The chapter describes that anxiety, guilt, and depression present a trip-tych in every relation between the subject and the Other. Contemporary research into anxiety is mainly focused on its neuro-biological foundation and on psychological learning mechanisms. The chapter distinguishes two major approaches emerging out of Darwin and Freud. From a Darwinian perspective, anxiety is regarded as an inherited, adaptive biological reaction to an external danger. The Freudian approach, in which anxiety is understood as a reaction to an external and an internal danger, with a focus on the internal. The chapter shows that anxiety is the engine for three simultaneous processes, namely, subject-formation, symbol development, and the establishment of human reality as such.
