Early Developmental Roots of Anxiety*

Anxiety can be defined as the ego's reaction to or anticipation of danger (Freud, 1926). When the ego is overwhelmed or disorganized by the reaction to the danger situation we refer to the quality and quantity of anxiety as traumatic. By contrast, signal anxiety is a smaller dose of tension in anticipation of the danger situation, signifying “danger ahead.” From a developmental point of view, it would make sense to refer to signal anxiety only when the ego has begun to develop the function of anticipation or foresight at around three to four months of age.

There are several areas that contribute to the individual's predisposition to anxiety: hereditary—constitutional factors, prenatal conditions, the birth experience itself, and early postnatal experience. However, at this point in our knowledge we know too little about the contribution of each of these areas to postulate anything beyond the general likelihood of their positive contribution to the predisposition and threshold to anxiety.

Benjamin (1963) notes a critical period in the infant at three to four weeks of age, when there is a rapid change in neurophysiologic maturation, especially in the area of “plugging in” of sensory modalities to central nervous system experience. There is EEG evidence of neurophysiologic change at this time. The mother must function as part of the infant's stimulus barrier, or protective shield, in order that he not be overwhelmed by the new connections of sensory experience from within and without. The variability in the adequacy of parenting in this critical period is