paranoid anxiety

Paranoid anxiety is a term used in object relations theory, particularly in discussions about the Paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions. The term was frequently used by Melanie Klein,{{Cite book

| last= Klein

| first= Mélanie

| author-link=

| chapter= Notes on some schizoid mechanisms

| year= 1946

| editor-last=

| editor-first=

| title= Envy and gratitude and other works 1946-1963

| volume=

| publisher= Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis

| publication-date= 1975

| isbn= 978-0-02-918440-0

}}{{cite journal|last=Klein|first=Melanie|title=Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms|journal=International Journal of Psychoanalysis|year=1946|volume=27|issue=Pt 3–4|pages=98–110|pmid=20261821}} especially to refer to a pre-depressive and persecutory sense of anxiety characterised by the psychological splitting of objects.Neville Symington, Narcissism: A New Theory (1993) p. xv

Further developments

Donald Meltzer saw paranoid anxiety as linked not only to a loss of trust in the goodness of objects, but also to a confusion between feeling and thought.Donald Meltzer, The Kleinian Development (2008) p. 180

For the extreme forms of such anxiety, he coined the term 'terror', to convey something of the qualitatively different intensity of their nature.D. Meltzer et al, Exploring the Work of Donald Meltzer (2011) p. 120

External sources

Freud considered that there was generally a small kernel of truth hidden in the exaggerated anxiety of the paranoidS. Freud, On Psychopathology (PFL 10) p. 200-1 - what Hanns Sachs described as an amoeba about to become monster.O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (1946) p. 428

The anti-psychiatrist David Cooper argued indeed that "The therapist in working with people might far more often have to confirm the reality of paranoid fears than in any sense disconfirm or attempt to modify them",D. Cooper, The Death of the Family (1974) p. 11 but most family therapists would probably agree{{who?|date=August 2021}} that this is an extreme and one-sided position.R. Skinner/J. Cleese, Families and how to survive them (1994) p. 106

Defensive functions

Idealisation (as in the transference) can be used as a defence against deeper paranoid anxieties about the actual presence of a destructive, denigrating object.J. Segal, Melanie Klein (2001) p. 26

Conversely, paranoid fears, especially when systematised, may themselves serve as a defence against a deeper, chaotic disintegration of the personality.R. Anderson ed., Clinical Lectures on Klein and Bion (1992) p. 49

Persecutory anxiety state (panic attack) and persecutory delusion

Paranoid anxiety may reach the level of a persecutory anxiety state{{cite book|last=Waska|first=Robert|title=Treating Severe Depressive and Persecutory Anxiety States: To Transform the Unbearable|year=2010|publisher=Karnac Books|isbn=978-1855757202}} (a form of panic attack), including various levels of persecutory delusions (the preferred term to paranoid delusions).

Heavy drinking is said to sometimes precipitate acute paranoid panicE. Berne, A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis (1976) p. 239 – the protagonist's unconscious hostile impulses being projected onto all those around.R. Gregory ed, The Oxford Companion to the Mind (1987) p. 577

Literary examples

Hamm in Endgame by Samuel Beckett has been singled out as a character driven by paranoid anxiety.Meltzer et al, p. 176-7

Noboru in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima is shown to have persecutory anxiety

References

External links

[http://hum.sagepub.com/content/6/1/3 On the Dynamics of Social Structure : A Contribution to the Psycho-Analytical Study of Social Phenomena] article has discussions of defenses. See headings: defenses against paranoid anxiety and defenses against depressive anxiety.

Category:Delusional disorders

Category:Paranoia

Category:Object relations theory