AN EXISTENTIAL THEORY OF ANXIETY

FREDERICK C. THORNE
Brandon, Vermat

INTRODUCTION
From the existential viewpoint, the master motive of Man is to live as fully as
possible, to have the best possible life, to actualize potentialities and opportunities
to the utmost. Existentially, the good life does not occur by chance. It is not in-
evitably the result of a maturational growth process in which positive resources
inevitably triumph over negative forces. I t is not necessarily the result of mechan-
istic patterns of environmental stimulation, since environmental stimulation is
typically chaotic until organized through selective perception and learning. It is not
basically determined by chance even though some seem to have more luck than
others. I t is not easily produced by conditioning and training since the best educa-
tional institutions do not produce i t invariably. The good life seems to require special
effort and commitment on the part of each person, not only to mean well but also to
act out good intentions consistently in practice. Only solid accomplishment pays
off in achieving the good life.
A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACHTO SUCCESS I N LIFE
Phenomenologically, strivings to secure the best possible life for one’s Self may
be likened to the processes of running a business (which is only a special example of
running one department of life). In running a business, one starts out with a collec-
tion of assets and liabilities and sets out to make the most of them. I n general, a
business is successful if it results in an appreciation of capital or, a t the least, breaks
even. If there are consistent capital losses, the business cannot continue and is
bankrupt with insufficient asset,s to meet liabilities. Some people are willing to sub-
sidize a business which is creative or artistic even though not financially successful,
but usually not for long.
Phenomenologically, each child starts out in life with definite constitutional
assets and liabilities which tend to limit what he can become. Thus, a female has
certain limitations, a congenital cripple has others, and a person with a black skin
color has others. Undoubtedly, differences in physical attractiveness, energy ex-
penditure levels, physical strength and innate ability contribute important factors of
individual variance.
Phenomenologically, the environment provides large opportunities in the form
of general and specialized education, training and tutoring. Some children can
command larger resources of wealth, cultural background and sheer coincidental
opportunities than others, but almost everyone is offered much environmental stim-
ulation and growth. Phenomenologically, each person has his own distinctive quota
of time, energy, ability and effort with which to make the best of his environmental
and constitutional resources. What the person does with these resources is a matter
of fundamental personal and social importance.
Existentially, what a person accomplishes (or fails to accomplish) in relation to
his potentialities determines his relative success or failure in life. In upward striving
societies everywhere, but particularly in America, there is great pressure put on
almost every child to “make the most of himself”.]-Self-improvement has been
elevated to the status of a major motive in life with the bait of the possibility of be-
coming President of the United States being held out at least to every young male.
From a very early age, almost every child is tested, rated, examined and judged as
t o his relative accomplishments. He is made consciously aware at every possible
moment of the importance of “succeeding” and of “getting ahead” as rapidly as
possible.
‘This paper deliberately uses many vernacular terms because they accurately describe phew
omencrl & u r n which are generally recognized in popular ueage.
36 FREDERICK C. THORNE

Ultimately, existential success appears in large degree to be a function of how

well a person runs all the important departments of his life, rationally and deliber-
ately making the most of every resource and opportunity, with the eventual goal of
the fullest possible self-actualization. What man can become, he must become,
personally and socially. And this is only possible with maximal commitment and
investment of all resources. Existentially, to become completely self-actualized
through self-improvement is the major motive.
THESUCCESS-FAILURE RATIOIN LIFE
Because of constant pressure to succeed, and because of constant confrontation
with marks and other evaluations of the quality of behaviors, every child contin-
ually is made aware of the discrepancy between his ideal self (what he could be) and
his actual self (what he is).
Every act of a person may be considered as contributing to some kind of success
or failure. In school, each child is marked daily for his effort and production. In the
business world, each employee is rewarded financially in terms of the quality and
quantity of his work. In society, each person wins acceptance or rejection in relation
to the significance of his contributions.
Under such circumstances, it is inevitable that every child early develops a pro-
gressive awareness of the cumulative record of what he has done in life. In early
childhood, a child has very little productive resources but experiences some success
if he is praised by others because of attractiveness, growth and size, intelligence, or
other socially desirable qualities. The developing Ego is like a small fire which starts
out as a spark and is either (a) fed by praise and encouragement, or (b) put out by
rejection and criticism. Later, as the young person becomes productive, he receives
more recognition for his actual accomplishments and level of adjustment, and
develops more self-esteem.
The important thing is that no one who is aware of the importance of becoming
a real person can ignore the significance of the cumulative record of success and
failure, achievements and defeats, which constitute his own particular success-
failure ratio. Early in life, the relative balance of successes and defeats may not
loom too importantly, since the child is still learning, and hope for the long period of
adult productive life is still ahead, but even in early childhood most children are
aware of “how they are doing”. The status of the success-failure ratio becomes
critically important in the prime years from 20 to 50 when the foundations for any
real success in life are laid, and ultimate levels of achievement become pretty clearly
established. After 50, relatively little opportunity for improvement in the success-
failure ratio exists since constitutional resources begin to be impaired, vocational
opportunities become fewer, and chances for “hitting the jackpot” become less. By
age 65, the record is largely in, and the person must try to live with what he has done.
Throughout life, every person carries with him the cumulative record of his success-
failure ratio.
Only an Olympian personality could be universally successful in running all the
departments of his life, self-actualizing potentials in all the roles of student, worker,
leader, executive, sex and marriage partner, parent, social and civic person, creative
artist, etc. Most people show a mixed profile of success and failure in different
areas, and “get along” in life either by virtue of generally acceptable performance or
because of peak performance in single fields.
THENATUREOF EXISTENTIAL ANXIETY
It is hypothesized that a primal stimulus to anxiety is a fancied or actual failure
in some important thing(s) which are perceived as threatening to the prime existen-
tial motive of living as fully as possible. Anything which blocks self-actualization
tends to stimulate anxiety. Failure in any important department in the business of
running one’s life generates anxiety. Anything which inhibits or frustrates “full-
existence” generates or releases anxiety. The great fear is of failure, i.e., not to be-
come self-actualized, thereby missing out on a full life.
 A N EXISTENTIAL THEORY OF ANXIETY :3 7

It is postulated that the level of anxiety stimulated by any fancied or actual

failure is a function, relatively, of the status of a person’s success-failure ratio in life.
Persons with a predominantly successful balance of achievement can tolerate small
failures wit.h production of minimal anxiety. Persons with a predominant balance
of defeats in their ratio, cannot tolerate even the smallest further failures because
they exagerate an already hopeless position.
I t is postulated that the only real antidote to anxiety is success. In general, one
unit of success counterbalances one unit of failure, but this holds true only if the
unit of success is i n the same department, as previous units of failure. Thus, success
in business may not compensate for failure in love or as a marriage partner.
I t is postulated that, existential anxiety tends to be tolerable as long as the ratio
of success to failure is a t least 51-497, so t.hat the person can realistically perceive
himself as a t least to some degree “getting ahead’’ and making at least average
progress in actualizing himself. -4person really becomes self-confident when he has
accomplished a well-rounded success in all departments of his life. No exact ranges
ran be delimited, but 60% success in life is unusual, 80% success is phenomenal,
90% success is Olympian, and even God is not 100% successful. Actually, superior
levels of achievement usually fall far short of perfection. Thus, a baseball player who
bats a t a ,400 rate (4 hits out of 10 a t bat.8) is sensational. In a competitive culture,
anybody who scores above al‘erage can be well pleased with himself.
Existent,ial anxiety becomes progressively intolerable under conditions where a
person (a) achieves progressively less than SOYo successes, (b) cumulatively loses
ground i n relation to the convoy of his age peers, (c) loses his resources such as time,
energy, health or wealth, and (d) has diminishing future prospects as in old age.
iinything perceived as a major catast,rophe such as expulsion from school, losing an
important job, breakup of a marriage, loss of reproductive fertility, prison sentence,
loss of reputation, loss of money, or crippling of health, may stimulate incapacitating
psychoneurotic anxiety reactions. This is particularly true where the loss is ir-
retrievable. In World War I, neurotic breakdowns were regarded as reflecting
cowardice and a “yellow streak”. Many soldiers were shipped back from the front
and never given a chance to redeem bhemselves so that the psychoneurotic reaction
became irreversible with result,ing life-long incapacitation. I n the Korean War, fear
was regarded as being normal and anxious soldiers were held in the front line where
they could learn to control their neurotic reactions.
Each person shows differential thresholds and reactivities to various kinds of
stimuli causing existential anxiety since levels of anxiety are always relative t o the
assets and liabilities and situational stresses existing at any time. In general, threats
to security can occur in relation to all the levels of factors organizing personality
integration, ranging from threats to raw biologic survival t o threats to the highest
Level creative activities.
GENUINE SELF-I~CTLTALIZATION
Existential anxiety t.ends to develop when one tries to be something which one
is not. In order to be genuinely solid and health producing, success must reflect
solid achievement, rather than being a shallow facade of trying to act-out the roles
of worldly success.
Existential theory stresses authenticity and genuineness as the criteria of existen-
tial success. One can surround one’s self with the trappings of success such as
stylish clothing, fiiie cars, luxurious homes, displays of wealth and family back-
ground, etc., but unless these are genuinely earned, they contribute only to phoniness.
A phony is a person who acts out or imitates something which he is not.
The person who is not genuine and authentic tends t o generate existential
anxiety over anything which threatens to topple his house of cards. No one knows
better than the person himself how phony and flimsy his pretenses may be. Having
offered one’s self publicly t o be something which one is not, there is the constant fear
of detection and defrocking. Nothing can replace solid accomplishment. Success in
38 FREDERICK C. THORNE

life cannot be borrowed or transferred. To pretend anything else is self-defeating

and actually inhibits positive self-actualization by starting the person off “on the
wrong track”.
In this case, existential anxiety arises because the person consciously or uncon-
sciously recognizes that he is actually a failure no matter how hard he may pretend
otherwise. Complicated defenses and rationalizations against the recognition of
failure tend to become top-heavy and generate anxiety as their collapse becomes
increasingly imminent.
TENTATIVE CONTROL AND EXISTENTIAL ANXIETY
Mental disorder is always characterized by various degrees of breakdown of
self-control and personality integration. Loss of control is a constant symptom of all
kinds of breakdown, and it is always associated with levels of anxiety proportionate
to the degree of loss of integration.
Dissolution of personality integration is always threatening and anxiety-
producing because it implies a breakdown of the functional integrity of the conscious
Self. It is significant that hypochondriacal fears of mental breakdown, death, heart
attack or some other somatic disorder are symptomatic of most anxiety states. Most
people fear mental breakdown more than any physical disease because they would
prefer death to “loss of my mind”.
Awareness of loss of control, or tentative control, stimulates anxiety because it
implies that the person is no longer in control of his life. As one patient explained it:
“I feel as if I had become a rudderless ship. I have lost control over the
steering wheel. I have terrible nightmares in which awful things are happening
and I feel powerless to do anything about them. The other night I dreamed
that I had lost my job and they wouldn’t let me back in the building. Another
night I dreamed that my teeth were disintegrating in my mouth. I dreamed
that I touched one of them and it went to pieces under my fingers.”
“I feel I am going to blow my stack. I don’t know what I may do. It
frightens me. I can’t stand to be alone. This morning I got so panicky I called
my husband home from work to be with me. That is the only way I can get any
relief. But I know I can’t do that every day.”
I n order to feel normal and self-confident, a person must feel that he is in control
of himself, and that he has sufficient reserves of control to survive any stresses which
life may deal out.
The integrity of the Self is an essential precondition for self-actualization.
Anything which threatens or prevents integration is productive of anxiety. The
rejected, unloved, unsocialized child may never develop healthy Ego structure. The
traumatized, permanently injured person may never recover the integration of the
Self. The disordered person always is threatened with loss of integration.
EXISTENTIAL
ANXIETYAND NEUROTICBREAKDOWN
Severe neurosis almost always appears to be a reaction to serious defeat in any
major department of self-actualization. The morale of a person is analogous to
the morale of a team or an army.
The loss of morale in a defeated, retreating army is always a difficult problem
to replace. I n the face of defeat and possible annihilation, men go to pieces emotion-
ally, become hysterical and develop all kinds of incapacitating personality reactions.
The first rehabilitative step is to stem the retreat, not to lose any more ground than
necessary. This is always difficult because reorganization and reorientation are
difficult at best, and may be almost impossible in the face of a rout. Defeated armies
lose confidence in themselves and their leaders, and hardly ever can be persuaded to
turn around and fight effectively against the confidence which goes with success.
After retreat has finally become stemmed, the army must regroup itself and begin
the hard fight back foot by foot.
 AN EXISTENTIAL THEORY OF ANXIETY 39

The conditions of llnervous breakdown” are similar to those of military defeat.

The person has to try to recover control over himself and achieve some success at
the very moment when conditions are worst. The psychoneurotic person has to try
to regroup and reorient himself a t the very time when his symptoms are most in-
capacitating, he has lost his job, expended his financial resources, lost his self-respect
and security, and is demoralized. A t the very time when his control is fast disappear-
ing, he must “pull himself up by his bootstraps”. He is inclined to lapse into de-
pendency and illness where somebody else has to take care of him. Feelings of being
successful and worthwhile are difficult in this situation where self-actualization
processes have broken down and the person’s life is a “mess”. It may require skillful
therapy and tutoring to get the “show back on the road’’. The therapist may have
t o stand behind the neurotic, gradually edging him back into the competition of life,
encouraging him to continue in the face of little immediate success and gratification,
and holding on until the success-failure ratio begins to break even again.
ANXIETYAND GUILT
It is significant that potentially injurious behaviors do not inevitably stimulate
anxiety and guilt unless they materially and openly interfere with self-actualizing
and having the best possible life.
Much appears to depend upon whether the person “gets away with it”. Thus, a
person may perpetrate many socalled liimmoralllor llsinful” actions and show little
objective or subjective anxiety if they succeed and are gratified by various rewarding
results. Many people try to “beat the game” and break all kinds of laws, enjoying
the battle of wits and resulting gratifications as long as they are able to evade de-
tection and are unsuspected. Anxiety appears either in the conditions of probable
detection or actual public discovery and punishment.
In many cases, it appears that guilt arises only in the situation of imminent or
actual detection. It’s not what you do but whether you’re caught which seems to
matter. In such instances, guilt appears to be a reaction of anger and recriminations
against the self for having been stupid enough not to get away with it. Where the
anger and self-hate are sufficiently intense, self-destructive impulses in the form of
severe depression may develop. Or when hope for pny recovery of fortunes is lost,
passive apathy and indifference tend to color the depressed mood.
Many people are honest not because of any real fear of the Ten Commandments
but because they have learned by experience that dishonest behaviors are too punish-
ing and damaging to maintenance of self-actualization. What good is money unless
you are free to enjoy it? Even so, many criminals will accept a prison term if they
can eventually expect to get away with stolen goods. It is significant that criminal
psychologists report that among habitual felons, the greatest disrespect is for those
who are stupid enough to get caught.
Guilt and depression may become sevae if the person perceives that the main
chance is now lost. When a person perceives that he is no longer young, can never
retrace his steps or regain lost opportunities, or has lost his health, life prospects
really become grim. Here, the depression reflects hostile impulses turned inward
against the self.
One of the best examples of this postulated relationship between failure, anxiety
and guilt is illustrated in the instance of an older person losing or foolishly squander-
ing his life earnings upon which he had depended for retirement security. In such a
case, the material result of a lifetime of industry is lost, the person’s comfortable
retirement way of life becomes impossible, the person is too old to recoup his losses,
and there is nothing much he can do to regain the success which is the natural anti-
dote for failure. In such situations, the person usually becomes intolerably anxious,
feels hateful and guilty towards himself for being such a fool, and may wish to com-
mit suicide because the possibility of a “full life” in old age is lost and nothing but
the poor house beckons. Or, the person may simply be afraid to face others and
accept lessened status because of stupidity.
40 FREDERICK C. THORNE

Certainly, much anxiety and guilt can be observed to originate in situations

where there is no question of Sin or immorality. Much anxiety arises simply in con-
nection with “foolish mistakes” particularly when they are irretrievable and costly.
“Hindsight is better than foresight” and it is so easy to see what one should have
done. Increased anxiety appears to be generated in situations where the making of
errors is overly reacted to. Where parents or teachers make a great to-do over every
trivial error, the child becomes sensitized to perpetual criticism and defeat. This
conditioning can be reversed only when the adult learns that everything is not life-
and-death and that errors are not fatal. Every child should be given a card each
morning stating that he can make three errors that day without fear of punishment.
A person should learn to take mistakes in stride, resolving to do better next time, and
not being flooded with useless recriminations and guilt. You can’t expect to win all
the time so be a good loser.
According to the existential theory of anxiety, guilt over “sinful” acts is just a
special case of anxiety arising over failure. It is always more humiliating, of course,
to fail because of attempting something which one has been warned not to do.
Moralism preaches “goodness”, and punishes with “I told you so” recriminations to
feel “guilty” and thereby finally confessing “error”.
ANXIETYAND CONSCIENCE
It is possible, through suitable conditioning, to internalize fears of failure and
social detection to the point where the conditioned reaction of guilt occurs at the
mere thought of doing something or, if something has been done, before it is even
detected. This is the mechanism which organized theology has utilized to produce
conditioned “morality” or conscience.
It is significant that many forbidden actions produce no guilt until the person
is told they are wrong? In many societies where premarital relations or homo-
sexuality have been standard practices or passively condoned, psychiatrists have
observed little evidences of much conscience or guilt. It is only when some action is
condemned by some authority, and judged to be immoral or sinful in the light of
arbitrary social taboos, that it becomes a potential source of guilt. Thus, most
primitive savages go about nude with no sense of guilt until some missionary tells
them it is sinful.
There is little doubt but that the primal unconditioned reaction of anxiety in
response to threatened or actual failure can be conditioned to the secondary stimulus
of a moral code to produce what is known as conscience or Super-Ego. Such condi-
tioning undoubtedly creates a very valuable source of internal controls tending to
inhibit behaviors which are genuinely personally or socially dangerous. There is
also no doubt that over-zealous reformers have produced conditioned aversion re-
actions to many stimuli or behaviors which are undesirable only because of some
arbitrary fiat and not because of any inherent harm. In a little less than 300 years,
our entire legal code of what constitutes punishable crime has been whittled down to
size. Whereas only 200 years ago, capital punishment was prescribed for hundreds
of crimes and misdemeanors, now the law is much more tolerant of deviations
which are now correctly regarded as being within the normal range of behaviors.
Now the whole question of sin is questioned because of the realization that we are
actually dealing with defect, disorder or immaturity as the true causes of asocial
behavior.
It is also significant how quickly guilt tends to be dissipated when a person
learns from his own experience that forbidden acts do not actually have the bad
consequences which others have said they would have. Criminologists have reported
how quickly felons tend to lose pangs of conscience once they have gotten away with
a few crimes.
T h e late Alfred G . Kinsey advised us in a personal conversation that he had never in his exper-
ience uncovered conclusive evidence that masturbation by an healthy person ever had any deleterious
physical or mental effects. Neurotic reactions develop only when the person is told that it is wrong.
 AN EXISTENTIAL THEORY OF ANXIETY 41

A 30 year old spinster who had previously led a very sheltered, retiring, bashful life came for
psychotherapy in a state of severe anxiety because “I have just spent the weekend in bed with a
married man whose last name I don’t even know.” When the counselor’s initial response waa “So
what?”, the client ventilated strong guilt feelings and anxiety over “What would people think if
they ever knew? I must be really sick to do such a thing.” After she had been reassured that she
was just at the age of 30 going through a type of e rimentation with life which most girls go
through in their teens, she grndually quleted down. Xhin n few months, she became the mistress
of a man without developing much guilt or anxiety once she saw that nothing much bad was going
to happen. Fortunately, the other departments in her life were going fairly well.
Another example of the influence of changing attitudes upon guilt levels relates
to the concept of virginity as “a girl’s best possession”. Twenty years ago in our
private practice, we encountered many cases of severe anxiety states developing in
reaction t o over-strict parental criticism. In one case, a father’s hair turned gray
overnight and he ordered his daughter “never to darken my door again” when she
became illegitimately pregnant. Today, parental and social reactions are much less
intense, with resultant lesser anxiety reactions, as only mild rebukes are offered such
as “kinda careless weren’t yuh?”
I n our experience, the development of anxiety and guilt over misbehavior more
often occurs in weak insecure personalities who cannot tolerate further defeats in
life. Tough-minded persons who are hardened to life frequently “get away with
murder” for years because they are self-confident enough to take great risks without
experiencing disabling pangs of conscience. Certainly, many confidence men and
imposters have no regrets whatsoever a t having fleeced the “suckers”. Many of the
great fortunes of history were gathered by pirates and buccaneers of commerce and
industry. All this is not to defend the illicit exploitation of others, but simply to
emphasize that such actions do not produce many pangs of conscience when they
turn out successfully and are later legitimized as in philanthropy.
ANXIETY AND MONEY
In our opinion, psychological theorists have not given sufficient attention to the
role of money in personality states. Money is the life blood of modern business and
commerce. I n more primitive rural societies, a person could get by with direct
barter and exchange of goods and services, with little or no money necessary to com-
plete all necessary transactions. In complicated urban society, direct exchanges of
services no longer are possible, and all commercial transactions depend upon money
as a medium of exchange. Unless a person learns to handle money properly, he is in
constant difficulty with society.
I n the same manner as a person has only so much blood in his body and if this
is allowed t o drip away, he inevitably dies of circulatory collapse, so a person has
only limited material resources and if these are frittered away he ends up bankrupt.
We constantly remind clients that “Little leaks sink big ships.” Careless handling of
capital resources results in poverty and bankruptcy. Usually, the only material
things which a person has after a life-time of hard work are some small physical
properties and life savings in money.
I n spite of all the calamitous tales which are told of the disastrous effects of the
unwise use of money by unhealthy or immature personalities, the fact remains th a t
it requires money to participate in most of the better things of life. Money, wisely
used, can buy most of the more gracious things of life such as comfortable shelter,
better foods, enjoyable luxuries, higher education, nice cars, trips to Europe, personal
privacy, fine art and jewelry, and admission to all the performing arts. The mass
advertising media are always holding up to the entire population the joys of gracious
living which can be bought with money.
Every child early learns that he is powerless to command the better things in
life without money. T o be certain, he is told that he can have anything if he is willing
to work hard enough for it, but that is not always so easy. Some children learn the
sociopathic style of life of “taking” forcibly what is not given them. Most people
just ‘(giveup” in their attempts to get the bright baubles which are dangled in front
of them. A fortunate few can create wealth and taste the fruit of the earth.
42 FREDERICK C. THORNE

I n our experience, the failure to be able to accumulate wealth, or to preserve it,

is an important stimulus to anxiety and guilt. Even though it is currently philo-
sophically unpopular to equate success with money, the fact is that without money
many attributes of the richest life are impossible to attain. To the extent that the
fullest and most gracious living depends upon money, failure to acquire money re-
presents a failure to be able to possess the fullest and most enjoyable conditions of
living. While the title of a popular song tells us that “The Best Things in Life are
Free” and there are many poor people who are very happy, this may not be very
consoling to the young person who can’t go to college, or have a good car, or live in a
nice house, or have the nice things, or keep up with the “Jones’s” who have been
more successful in acquiring and stewarding wealth.
I n our clinical experience, a large amount of reactive anxiety and guilt can be
traced directly to poor handling of money.
A 67 year old retired small businessmanhad acquired about $125,000 by the time he retired in
life savings. Against advice, and because he became restless doing nothing, he bought into an
automobile agency. Within one year he lost $50,000 and had to close down. Shortly thereafter
he developed a severe neurotic depression expressing great anxiety over what this 108s would do to
his standard of living, what would his associates think of his mistake, and much guilt over being
80 stupid. He gradually recovered when he discovered that with his remaining $75,000 he still
could spend at least $5,000 annually for 15 years before his capital ran out.

COMPARISON WITH OTHERTHEORIES OF ANXIETY

John B. Watson’s behavioristic theory was correct in recognizing fear as an
unconditioned reaction to loss of support or sudden intense stimulation. Fear oper-
ates as a strong instinctive evaluatory reaction supporting self-preservation. Through
mechanisms of conditioned inhibition, social taboos are internalized to provide inner
controls of behavior. However, behaviorism and other objective psychologies were
methodologically unable to deal with phenomena of voluntary self control, purpose
and commitment which are so essential t o full self-actualization.
Freudian theories of the role of conflict and repression in the production of
neurotic anxiety and breakdown are regarded as only a special case of the existential
theory of anxiety. It is significant that the psychoanalytic emphasis on disorders of
psychosexual development arose out of Freud’s religious and cultural background.
Judiac taboos on sexuality are among the most repressive in the world and lead to
special problems not encountered in cultures not holding such views. Freudian pre-
occupation with sexual disorders as a main cause of neurosis may be regarded as
being due to a too-onesided concern with breakdown of self-actualization in only
one department of life. The existential theory of anxiety recognizes that normal
sexual life is one component of full self-actualization, and that failure to actualize
sexual potentialities and opportunities to the utmost may stimulate feelings of de-
privation and frustration which may be very anxiety producing. But they are not
always the main or the only source of major failure in life.
Adler’s concern with power drives in life, the inferiority complex, and with the
personal and social significances of the style of life, are regarded as other special
cases of the existential theory of anxiety which are necessary to complement Freudian
theories of sexual deprivation and conflict. Adler properly recognized that sexuality
is only one department of life (even though one of the most important), and that
needs for power and social recognition constitute other areas for self-actualization.
Alfred Adler along with Harry Stack Sullivan both gave more adequate weight-
ing to the interaction of the person-meeting-his-environment in an active adaptive
process the success of which depends both on levels of personal gratification and of
social constructiveness. Every person needs not only to satisfy himself but also to
satisfy others if he is to develop self-confidence and esteem.
0.H. Mowrer’s rediscovery of Sin as the original cause of guilt and mental
breakdown represents to us simply a further development of classical Judaic-Christ-
ian theology and of the psychopathology which can result from conditions producing
mass neurosis. Since man must exist socially and is dependent upon the good graces
 A N EXISTENTIAL TffEORY O F ANXIETY 43

of others for many things upon which he depends, it follows that anything which
impairs his social standing and his social cooperation will result in frustration and
castration of his chances for complete self-actualization and the best possible life.
Where some authority arbitrarily announces that something is bad or sinful, and
conditions such morality repetitiously, and has the power to enforce punishment or
ostracism for all those who do not conform, conscience (Super-Ego) can be internal-
ized almost a t will according to any set of standards which the authority arbitrarily
selects, resulting in conflict, anxiety and guilt. This is another special case of the
existential theory of anxiety where failure results from social condemnation and
punishment for having done something which is judged to be wrong. Part of the
guilt results from being told that you are sinful and evil and should repent for it, but
a larger part results from the actual blacking of self-actualization which threatens
the person’s whole need to have the best possible life. Mowrer’s insistence upon the
confessional and atonement as the foundations for psychotherapy happen to be cor-
rect to the degree that insight into what one has been doing wrong and determined
efforts to correct it in positive action are natural producers of success anyway.

AN ANALYSIS OF POLYGRAPHIC RESPONSES OF CHRONIC

REGRESSED MALE SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS
TO FREUDIAN-TYPE STIMULI*
EMANUEL STARER, JULIUS WEINBERGER AND GERTRUDE AHBEL
Veterans Adminastration Hospital, Nmthpmt, New York
PROBLEM
AND PROCEDURE
In a previous in~estigation‘~) it was noted that the schizophrenic patients’
responsivity to cards depicting the classical Freudian psychosexual stages were
frequently limited to mere card descriptions which were devoid of any emotional in-
volvement or implication. The present pilot investigation was undertaken to de-
termine whether polygraphic measures of galvanic skin response (GSR) and respira-
tion would give indications of responsivity in chronic regressed schizophrenic
patients to these cards.
This study comprised 22 subjects, consisting of 11 patients and 11 nursing
assistants serving as controls. The patients were either mute or else highly limited
in their verbal responsivity. None of the patients had any organic involvement or
epilepsy. The mean age of the patient group was 40 years, range 37 t o 46 years. The
mean number of years of schooling was 10.4 years, range 8 to 13 years. This group
was hospitalized for psychiatric reasons for an average of 13.6 years, range 8 to 19
years.
The mean age of the control group, consisting of newly appointed nursing
assistants, was 26 years, range 18 to 51 years. The mean number of years of school-
ing was 11.6 years, range 10 to 13 years.
Each patient and each nursing assistant was asked to look at the stimuli cards
for a period of 30 seconds. A set of neutral stimuli were consecutively interspersed
between the Freudian-type stimuli and were also presented for 30 seconds. Fifteen
second rest periods were given between cards.
Polygraphic data on the GSR and respiration rate were recorded according to
the following procedure. A Keeler polygraph, Model 6303. was used as the recording
apparatus. The channel recorded respiration from a “pneumograph tube” placed
across the upper part of the subject’s chest. The GSR recordings were obtained from
Keeler finger-tip electrodes held by springs on the tips of the first and third fingers
*The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable assistance of Howard Gitter in obtaining poly-
graphic data and in statistical computation.