On the Regulation of Anxiety: Its Relation to “The Timelessness of the Unconscious and Its Capacity for Hallucination”

In the early nineteen-seventies a film by Vittoria de Sica, The Garden of the Finzi-Contini's, was shown in this country, where it won serious critical acclaim for its sensitive portrayal of the effect on a representative group of the Italian Jewish community during World War II of the gradual but increasingly dangerous erosion of its civil rights and freedoms. Numerous anti-Semitic laws had been introduced, which became more stringent as the Nazi military machine increasingly dominated the Italian Fascist dictatorship. The reactions and behavior of the harassed group of Jews, of course, varied widely. Some very early became aware of the menace of the more and more oppressive measures and escaped to other countries, where they attempted to continue their lives and their careers. Others, also cognizant of the danger, were nonetheless powerless to save themselves. And still another group—and the film story centers primarily on them—used a method of escape which though initially successful, led ultimately to disaster. The abortive escape of this group was made possible by the extremely wealthy, remote, aristocratic, and venerable family of the Finzi-Continis (of Jewish