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Chapter 11 - Psychodynamic Approaches to Anxiety

from Applications of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy with Accompanying Case Study Description for Each Presentation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2023

Adam Polnay ,
Rhiannon Pugh ,
Victoria Barker ,
David Bell ,
Allan Beveridge ,
Adam Burley ,
Allyson Lumsden ,
C. Susan Mizen  and
Lauren Wilson
Foreword by
Nancy McWilliams
Adam Polnay
Affiliation:
The State Hospital, Carstairs and Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
Victoria Barker
Affiliation:
East London NHS Foundation Trust, London
David Bell
Affiliation:
British Psychoanalytic Society
Allan Beveridge
Affiliation:
Royal College of Psychiatrists, London
Adam Burley
Affiliation:
Rivers Centre, Edinburgh
Allyson Lumsden
Affiliation:
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
C. Susan Mizen
Affiliation:
Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, Exeter
Lauren Wilson
Affiliation:
Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
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Summary

A psychodynamic approach to anxiety is not disorder specific; anxiety can and usually is present to varying degrees in all patients that are seen for psychodynamic psychotherapy. This chapter aims to shed some light on some psychodynamic approaches to thinking about anxieties. Using theory and clinical examples we think about how difficulties in containing processes between caregiver and infant early in the infant’s life may predispose to the persistence of archaic anxieties. We go on to explore the nature of separation and loss in relation to anxiety and finally, we reflect on how internal conflict and the role of a critical internal object can bring about anxiety. The clinical examples illustrate how wider variation in anxieties may present in therapy and the last section focuses on how the therapist may experience and respond to these different anxieties.

Keywords

Anxietypsychodynamicdisintegrationcontainmentseparationlosssignal anxietyinternal conflictcountertransference
Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Guide to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy , pp. 171 - 183
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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