ABSTRACT

Anxiety begins as the helplessness experienced by the symbiotic infant when the vital oneness with mother is disrupted. The self develops beyond symbiosis with the eventual internalization of external relationships. Anxiety is experienced as loss of love, and later becomes connected to those internal cues which signal a potential loss of love. Many of the major theories and terms were developed from experience with disturbed persons. In addition, concepts such as repression or defensiveness, rationalization, projection, or the use of anxiety and guilt as explanatory terms have passed into common usage. The developing individual resolves conflicts in one of two general ways, which is termed as dissociation and integration. Dissociation involves a splitting off of conflict-producing or anxiety-arousing thoughts, impulses, feelings, or actions from one's self-conception. It encompasses the phenomena of repression, defense, and the unconscious. This chapter presents the formulation of anxiety, self, and dissociation fits with various neo-Freudian and existential theories.