The phylogenetic argument in Freud's metapsychology of anxiety.

Freud's theorising about anxiety has traditionally been based on its nosographical categories (anxiety neurosis, anxiety hysteria) or on the relationship between anxiety and repression (first and second theories of anxiety). While these types of approach have made it possible to identify some milestones in the development of the concept of anxiety, they have also obscured the relevance that Freud attributed to the phylogenetic argument. This article reviews the historical and conceptual context of Freud's main evolutionary references (Lamarck, Darwin, Haeckel, Weismann), and then analyses their presence and function in Freud's work, especially in his conception of anxiety. The article shows that while some of the evolutionary references became obsolete towards the end of the 19th century, they played such an important role in Freud's work that he never ceased to defend them. With respect to anxiety, though Freud did not make fully public his metapsychological hypothesis about the phylogenetic rationale, this perspective permeates his writing and is fundamental to his development of the concepts of neurotic anxiety/realistic anxiety and automatic anxiety/signal anxiety.

Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank: debates and confrontations about anxiety and birth.

The publication of Otto Rank's The Trauma of Birth (1924) gave rise to an intense debate within the secret Committee and confronted Freud with one of his most beloved disciples. After analyzing the letters that the Professor exchanged with his closest collaborators and reviewing the works he published during this period, it is clear that anxiety was a crucial element among the topics in dispute. His reflections linked to the signal anxiety concept allowed Freud to refute Rank's thesis that defined birth trauma as the paradigmatic key to understanding neurosis, and, in turn, was a way of confirming the validity of the concepts of Oedipus complex, repression and castration in the conceptualization of anxiety. The reasons for the modifications of anxiety theory in the mid-1920s cannot be reduced, as Freud would affirm officially in his work of 1926, to the detection of internal contradictions in his theory or to the desire to establish a metapsychological version of the problem, for they gain their essential impulse from the debate with Rank.

La inscripción de la angustia en el campo psicopatológico: referencias etimológicas, consideraciones filosóficas y categorías precursoras / The inscription of the anguish in the psychopathological field: etymological references, philosophic considerations and precursors categories

A diferencia de algunas categorías fundamentales que recorren la historia de la psicopatología, la incorporación de la angustia al marco nosográfico de la psiquiatría se producirá, pese a su relevancia clínica, de manera tardía, iniciándose su redefinición durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. El presente trabajo identificará problemáticas relativas al campo semántico y etimológico de la angustia, para luego examinar las tesis sostenidas por Kierkegaard sobre el objeto y la temporalidad involucrados en dicha experiencia. Se postulará que estas referencias filosóficas serán claves en la redefinición y la inscripción del problema en el campo psicopatológico, pudiendo constatar su influencia en las categorías de delirio emotivo, agorafobia, miedo a los espacios y en la distinción entre miedo y angustia, formulada por Karl Jaspers (AU)

In difference to some fundamental categories that run over the history of psychopathology, the incorporation of the anguish to the nosographic frame of the psychiatry will occur in a tardy manner, in spite of its clinic relevance, starting its redefinition, during the second half of the XIX century. The present work will identify problems related to the semantic and etymological field of the anguish, to examine later on, the theses supported by Kierkegaard regarding the object and the temporality involved in this experience. It will be postulated that these philosophical references will be the keys to the redefinition and the inscription of the problem in the psychopathological field, being able to prove its influence in the emotional delirium, agoraphobia and fear to the spaces categories and the distinction between fear and anguish, as formulated by Karl Jaspers (AU)