Going back to the questions that triggered this essay’s reflection: To what extent is nowadays subjectivity a reflection of cultural changes? Is Psychoanalysis outdated? Considering that our goal is creating a familiar vocabulary in order think of today’s symptoms, we will summarize Freud’s methodology in two main assumptions regarding anguish: 1) Anguish is the first human existential condition- it comes together with the need for survival (breastfeeding). It happens again in situations that repeat an atmosphere that is felt as a threat to the mind. 2) Anguish is also a “thermometer” to measure if a conflict, in the present, triggers a disproportionate stress to the actual event. Both definitions are still valid and, to my knowledge, are the most refined understanding of mental disorders. Anxiety, depression and difficulties with sociability are exhaustingly detailed in terms of symptoms but poorly in terms of etiology. There are several theories and methods to work on circumstantial anxieties and to train the brain to get rid of pathological patterns that, if it happens to be neurotic, has a great deal of chance to occur again or to appear in other symptoms. Unconscious patterns are structural and are the result of early traumas and/or inhibitory atmospheres such as: rejection, abandonment, hostility, indifference that are unlikely to be solved just by behavioral training, unless the person is working on these introjected memories, in some way. From this perspective, psychoanalysis still offers a precious contribution. Altogether, the reflection of cultural changes in nowadays Egos appears: 1) in the sort of inhibitory atmospheres- in major cases, they are no longer repression ones; 2) in upbringing models- the fundamental pillar of Egos’ development. Ego is the group of values, concepts , ideas, tastes that sets our self-perception. To sum up, inspiring ways of life and life prospects models have changed. Obviously, social changes will have an impact on Egos’ development, once old moral values and esthetical references are replaced. Our goal was to show that these changes have influenced more creative Egos but also more insecure, unstable ones, in what concerns their own needs and desires. This is the background of new mental illnesses: it is a less neurotic generation but more anxious, with focus and attention difficulties and many panic disorders[1]. The link between them is the increase of existential anguish- the one related to the direction in adult life. To be continued in the next Post
[1] This topic will be developed in the following essay
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