ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the question of whether anxiety can exist not only as a product of interpersonal or intrapsychic conflict but also as a physiological product of brain function that creates a context within which psychic conflict and personality development take place. In this book, anxiety has been understood primarily as a result of the interaction between the self and other, wish and conflict, or ego and id. Implicit in this is the assumption that all individuals begin at the same starting point: with a similar potential for anxiety. In this chapter we reverse the perspective and ask instead whether the starting point itself can differ; that is, are there inherited or otherwise constitutional variations among individuals that, given equal circumstances, make some more likely than others to become anxious or develop anxiety disorders?