In the previous essay I defined anguish as a structural lack, which is responsible for a sort of intuitive search for a sense of self and a purpose in life. Structural lack, in turn, happens as a result the of the blockage of one or more basic areas in intuition formation. Intuition is constituted by 3 areas: sensation, perception and thinking. This field is completed around 2 years and a half. Anguish is the product of individuals’ intuitive search for completing the area(s) that have been blocked. Unblocking such areas allows individuals to be in touch with their spontaneous/creative nature. Anguish, in this sense, also works as a moto, i.e, what drives people’s needs and desires, and, for this reason, it is called existential anguish[1]. Although feeling anguished is never a healthy emotional state, existential anguish is crucial to make people get in touch with what drives them and, hence, it is intimately related with motivation. Another sort of anguish is the one associated with psychopathological symptoms: neurotic (or pathological) anguish. It is always linked to conflicting experiences/situations in the past that block people’s spontaneity. This anguish is related with what may be “emotionally wrong inside”, for instance, a sense of not fitting, contradictory feelings, ambivalences, etc… Sometimes, people become stuck in a certain stage of life because of the way in which neurotic anguishes are mingled with existential ones, preventing them from making healthy decisions. Their consequences are the lack of well being and emotional balance, and difficulties in finding an authentic direction in their lives.
Distinct anguishes express different levels of conflict, as well. If conflicts come from impediments in real lives, they may cause pain or suffering that are, however, proportionate to real losses or challenges. I’ll call them circumstantial or real anguishes[2]. If conflicts come from circumstantial difficulties that result in a crash in people’s life projects, they may trigger existential anguish. Existential anguish is expressed in specific symptoms: although it is proportionate to real losses or difficulties, its most important characteristic is the feeling of disorientation, as if they had lost their “ground”, i.e, their track in life so far. The third and last kind of anguish is neurotic. This anguish is always unconscious, which means it is always associated with hidden contents and, this way, it gives us a sense of how deep the psychotherapy has gone so far or is about to get into. In general, people search for psychotherapy to treat conflicts in the present, which they are aware of- manifest conflicts. Signs of neurotic anguishes appear in symptoms such as emotional disorders, psychosomatic diseases, dysfunctional behaviors, besides any signs of contradictory feelings or ideas, which usually appear in ambiguities or ambivalences- all of them expressions of latent conflicts. In conclusion, neurotic anguishes refer to suffering with no apparent or enough explanation. It requires a deeper investigation into their origins, which should lead to conflicts associated with people’s concepts of themselves (narcissism) and the directions they want take in their lives. This essay will explore anguishes related to sexual life. It encompasses sexuality and experimentation/exploitation of desire in all areas of life. They are related to all kinds of suffering that block enjoying life in a creative, spontaneous way.
To be continued in the next Post
[1] For more details, see Post 5- Existential anguish, in Essay 5- Anguishes. In: www.ceciliapsicologa.org [2] I’ve been following Dias’terminology. In this case, though, there is no significant difference between Dias’s term and the term first proposed by Freud: real anguish. I’ll will use them as synonyms.
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