Discussions

It has been held as a self-evident truth that “Anxiety is the central phenomenon in neuroses and psychoses.” Such a belief, while having considerable validity, also carries another message that relates anxiety only to sickness and disease. There is no question that anxiety is a central phenomenon in therapy and that the attitudes of the therapist and patient toward anxiety play a decisive role in the outcome of therapy. O. H. Mowrer states: “The common practice among therapists, so far as it can be judged at present, is to side with the neurotic in assuming that anxiety is something bad and to be gotten rid of, something to be banished rather than utilized.” I know of very little published evidence that therapists take the point of view that anxiety is a sign of strength within the personality and that it is something to be used as a basis for further personal development and greater maturity, rather than something to be analyzed away.”1

In a similar vein, Paul Hoch points to the necessity of anxiety for effective living. “Our society is built on a certain amount of anxiety, without it no socialization of the human being is possible. A varying degree of anxiety exists in all cultures. Anxiety, therefore, if not present to an excessive degree, is used as ego-regulative function against other drives, and if sublimated, performs as creative energy. If all tension and anxiety is lacking and the individual becomes