A Clinical Note on Social Anxiety

The role played by anxiety in mental functioning is at the very core of many problems dealt with by psychoanalysis. One might indeed state that the present-day emphasis upon the importance of anxiety in relation to neurotic symptomatology is due primarily to the work of psychoanalytic psychiatrists. Many aspects of the problem were clarified by Freud in his book, The Problem of Anxiety. It is the intention of the present paper to deal with one special facet of anxiety, that of social anxiety, which is a situational reaction always involving the presence of other people. Freud has emphasized the rôle that the threat of castration plays in the genesis of anxiety and, as is well known, emphasizes the function of anxiety as a danger signal. In discussing phobia formation, he states, “The castration anxiety is given another object and a distorted expression—namely, that of being bitten by a horse (or eaten by a wolf) instead of being castrated by the father. This substitute formation has two patent advantages: First, that it avoids the conflict due to ambivalence, for the father is an object who is at the same time loved; and secondly, that it allows the ego to prevent any further development of anxiety. For the anxiety of the phobia is a facultative anxiety: It makes its appearance only when its object is actually perceived. This is what one might expect; for it is only then that the danger situation is present. Similarly, at the hands of a father who is absent castration need not be feared. Now one cannot do away with one's father; he comes and goes as he pleases. But if he is replaced by some animal, then it is only necessary to avoid the sight of that animal, that is, its presence, to be free from danger and anxiety. Little Hans therefore imposes a restriction upon his ego; he evolves the inhibition against going out in order not to encounter horses.”1

Freud then goes on to state that, “Phobias have the characteristic of projection, since they substitute for an intern