ABSTRACT
Anxiety is an inevitable part of the human condition. It is hard-wired into our brains for both phylogenetic and ontogenetic survival. The flight–fight response is designed to allow people to respond adaptively to danger. Anxiety is an essential part of the attachment system, designed to keep babies and toddlers safe during this vulnerable time in their development. In psychoanalytic theory, the way people learn to cope with anxiety from an early age underpins the development of defence mechanisms. Anna Freud posited that anxiety arose out of unconscious conflicts related to the death and life instincts as well as the competing demands of the id, ego and superego. A psychodynamic interpretation involves working from the surface to depth, starting with interpreting the patient’s use of defences, and then addressing the underlying anxieties which they are defending against. In psychoanalytic theory, defence mechanisms are differentiated by the stage of development in which they develop and then come to be utilised.
