You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Flescher advances a theory of anxiety which is causally related to the fate of the aggressive drives. In his opinion the aggressive tendencies are always activated in situations of danger. Anxiety appears as a substitute for aggressive action provoked by dangers which may have either an internal or external origin. The intensity of the anxiety reaction will be in proportion to the degree of damming up of the aggressive drives. Even when the danger situation is caused by the sexual drives aggression is manifested. Flescher was led towards this new formulation by the difficulties which Freud's second theory of anxiety presents. These problems are listed at the beginning of the paper. The author's theory is called dualistic because instinctual and emotional manifestations usually appear as fusions of erotic and aggressive drives.
In the anxiety reaction itself traces of its aggressive origins can be detected. The content of clinical anxiety consistently points to repressed aggressive impulses. Animals subjected to frightening situations express behaviour which has either an offensive or defensive aim. The concepts of birth trauma, separation anxiety, castration anxiety and super-ego anxiety are individually examined in the light of the author's theory—for example, castration anxiety results from castration (aggressive) wishes which are projected on to the father by the boy and super-ego anxiety is seen as the outcome of the projection of death wishes against the parents and the fear of retaliation. Further confirmation of the theory is believed to be found in the writings of other analysts whose work is mentioned.
In the last pages of the paper Flescher discusses the possibility of whether or not his theory is wholly erroneous or is in fact a new solution to the problem of anxiety. He quotes from Civilization and Its Discontents to show that Freud later came to regard fear of authority (super-ego anxiety) as due not to the fear of loss of love but to a fear o