Psychoanalysis.
2014 Oct;25(2):54-64. 10.0000/pa.2014.25.2.54.
Anxiety and Fear Development: From the Psychoanalysis to the Neurobiological Approach
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Psychiatry, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. mompeian@khu.ac.kr
- KMID: 1910489
- DOI: http://doi.org/10.0000/pa.2014.25.2.54
Abstract
- Anxiety and fear are the essential emotion for the protection of the individual from threat and the reproduction for the preservation of the species. Freud's anxiety theory was developed primarily from compromised formation of conflicts, which was based on the libido theory, and later, signal anxiety theory, which was based on ego structures. In Bowlby's attachment theory, it is known that the quality of the infant's attachment determines the level of anxiety response afterwards, and affects the sociality and formation of interpersonal relationships in the adulthood. Although anxiety and fear are used as a similar concept, through animal experiments and human studies, the correlation between brain development and anxiety and fear, along with specific brain regions and related substances affecting the development of anxiety and fear, is continuously being discovered. Such research results may lead to the development of personalized tailored treatment for anxiety and fear of normal and mentally disabled people.
