The book “The Psychoanalysis of Anxiety” is a work written by Sigmund Freud, and is considered among his most prominent works that contribute to understanding anxiety from a psychoanalytic perspective. In this book, Freud presents his theories about anxiety and its underlying causes, and reveals the deep link between anxiety and repressed psychological conflicts.
The book begins by defining anxiety and its different types, and shows how it can be a natural reaction to psychological stress, but at the same time it can be the result of unconscious transformations in the mind. Freud also discusses the concept of “neurotic anxiety” and how it is related to psychological or emotional traumas that a person goes through in the early stages of his life.
Freud opens a door to understanding how anxiety is related to the psychological performance of individuals, including the psychological defenses that the subconscious mind adopts to confront negative feelings. He also discusses the relationship of anxiety to transformations in personal identity, and in his book he presents an in-depth study of the psychological effects of this feeling and how to treat it through psychoanalysis.
The book reflects Freud’s interest in the deep psychological aspects of the human being, and relies on self-analysis to understand the psychological mechanisms that cause anxiety and how to treat them within psychotherapy.