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Understanding Anxiety from the
Understanding Anxiety from the Psychoanalytical Approach to Personality
Shawna Saponjic
San Diego State University
Understanding Anxiety from the Psychoanalytical Approach to Personality
General Description of the Disorder
Anxiety disorders are categorized as types of mental health conditions. A person that has an anxiety disorder responds to certain situations with dread and fear. A person suffering from anxiety is also likely to show physical signs of anxiety, including sweating and a pounding heart. Worth noting, anxiety is a normal emotion. It is the brain’s way of responding to stress and notifying you of potential danger. It is normal for one to feel anxious every now and then. For instance, one may feel worried if they are going through a rough patch at work, before making a critical decision, and even before taking a test. While experiencing occasional anxiety is okay, anxiety disorder is completely different. Anxiety disorders can lead an individual to avoid school, work, family gatherings, and social situations that are likely to trigger one’s symptoms. Research posits that nearly 30% of adults suffer mental disorders at any given point in their lives. Anxiety disorder is likely to occur when one cannot control their response to situations, interacts with triggering emotions and interferes with their ability to function well (Bonevski & Naumovska, 2018). It is important to note that anxiety disorders occur in various types, including phobias, panic disorder, panic disorder, separation anxiety, and generalized anxiety disorder. Other mental conditions that have similar features to anxiety disorders are obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Although anxiety disorder symptoms vary according to the disorder type, some of the common symptoms include shortness of breath, sweaty hands, muscle tension, dry mouth, numbness of hands or feet, heart palpitations, and nausea. The mental symptoms of anxiety include nightmares, obsessive and uncontrollable thoughts, repeated flashbacks of traumatic experiences, and feelings of fear, panic, and uneasiness. Anxiety disorder’s behavioral symptoms are ritualistic behavior like cleaning hands repeatedly, difficulties sleeping, and lack of ability to be calm and still. As regards demographics, certain factors predispose some people to anxiety disorders. A combination of environmental and genetic disorders tends to place people at a high risk of developing the disorder. The people at most risk are those that suffer specific physical conditions, including heart arrhythmias and thyroid problems. Additionally, individuals whose families have a history of anxiety or mental health issues are at risk of developing an anxiety disorder. Further, persons who have gone through a traumatic or stressful event in adulthood or early childhood are likely to develop the disorder. Worth noting, certain personality traits, including shyness or feeling uncomfortable, or avoiding unfamiliar situations and environments, often predispose people to anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders are diagnosed using physical examination. If one displays anxiety symptoms, they should seek the advice of a healthcare provider as soon as possible. The doctors start with probing the patient’s medical background before conducting the actual physical assessment. Scans and lab tests are not necessary for diagnosing anxiety disorders. However, this does not mean that the doctor will not carry some tests to rule out other conditions behind the symptoms.
General Description of the Freudian Approach
Sigmund Freud had a unique approach to them as far as the unconscious, personality characters and defense mechanisms are concerned. In Freud’s theory of personality, he defined the unconscious as the reservoir of, memories, urges, thoughts, and feelings that go beyond the unconscious. He pointed out that the majority of the contents of the unconscious are deemed unpleasant and undesirable. Examples include feelings of anxiety, conflict, and pain. Freud was of the opinion that although people may not be aware of the underlying influences, the unconscious plays a critical role in influencing behavior. Freud compares the mind with an iceberg. What we see over the water is the conscious, while the unseen is the unconscious. The majority of what we cannot see is an enormous volume of the iceberg sunken below the water. Similarly, what we see in our conscious is just the small section of the iceberg, and the remaining information in the conscious is beneath the surface. While the information is not reachable consciously, it still has an control over a person’s behavior. The impact of the unconscious is that it can cause problems ranging from bias, anger, distress, relationship problems, compulsive behaviors, and complicated social interactions. As regards personality characters, Freud maintained that the ego, id, and superego are in continuous conflict with each other (Starkstein, 2018). He also opined that adult personality and conduct are deep-rooted in the outcome of the internal struggles in childhood. Worth noting, Freud maintained that people who display a strong sense of ego have a healthy personality, bringing imbalance in the system and leading to neurosis and unhealthy behaviors. Freud also theorized that human beings employ defense mechanisms to disconnect themselves from unpleasant events, actions, or thoughts. These psychological techniques help maintaining the distance between feelings of guilt and shame. Freud opined that these defense mechanisms are out of a person’s control, and most people do them even without realizing that they are using them. Some of the most common defense mechanisms include denial, projection, displacement, regression, and repression. Denial has to do with refusing to accept facts of reality. A person in denial often blocks external circumstances or events from their mind, so they do not have to face the emotional impact. Projection is when an individual projects feelings that make them uncomfortable by misattributing them onto another person. Displacement is when a person directs frustrating emotions towards people who do not feel threatened, allowing them to satisfy the impulse to react. Regression is when a person feels threatened and unconsciously escapes to another stage of development. Examples include bedwetting in children, mostly as a result of sudden trauma or loss. Repression is when a person chooses to unconsciously hide their feelings instead of dealing with them with the intention of forgetting about them completely.
How the Freudian Approach Explains Anxiety
Sigmund Freud’s approach described anxiety as a conflict taking place between the id and the ego. As a result of repression, people tend to experience impulsive and aggressive drives. The drives are likely to break, and in the process, they produce automatic anxiety. Noteworthy, patients struggling with anxiety disorder tend to imagine the worst about a scenario. They stay away from dangerous situations, such as crowded areas, heights, or social interaction. Additionally, in his viewpoint, the process of being a social being requires people to let go of some sexual impulses. Moreover, Freud established a strong distinction between signal anxiety and automatic anxiety. Automatic anxiety is often activated by traumatic experiences that make the ego overwhelmed. On the other hand, social anxiety is activated in response to dangerous situations, which serves as a warning that a distressing incident is imminent to ensure the individual puts up defensive measures to avoid it. The dangerous situations often gravitate to the threats arising from the feelings of hopelessness and mercy of others, including fear of being attacked, losing a loved one, and another person’s love. In the long run, Freud came up with the claim that the threats manifest even a more fundamental threat: fear of castration. This new notion led Freud to retract his former position that anxiety is caused by repression. This made him understand repression as preceding repression. Instead of viewing anxiety as a side-effect of repression, the new perspective made it possible to think along the lines of contours itself with defenses and symptoms to keep away from anxiety.
Possible Treatments of Anxiety Disorder.
Treatment for anxiety disorder can be categorized into two groups; psychotherapy and medication. While medical treatment is unnecessary for some people, lifestyle changes are enough to cope with the symptoms. Medications include sedatives and antidepressants that balance brain chemistry, prevent anxiety episodes, and eliminate the most severe symptoms. Other management techniques that can be categorized as psychotherapy include relation techniques, mindfulness, support groups, exercise, practicing assertiveness, breathing techniques, counseling, building self-esteem, cognitive therapy, behavior therapy, and building self-esteem. Worth noting, Freud believed in the ability of the unconscious’s contents to raise awareness and relieve psychological distress. Recent research also explored techniques to see how the unconscious influences behavior, including free association and dream interpretation. According to Freud, dream interpretation is effective in understating the unconscious meaning of a dream. This is because dreams are an entryway to the conscious, and while the information coming from the unconscious mind may come out in dreams, it often occurs in a disguised form. Fred also opined that dreams showed a form of desire fulfillment. Since the urges of the unconscious cannot be expressed when we are awake, Freud believed that they express themselves in dreams (Wang, 2020). Furthermore, another route to understanding the unconscious is through dream interpretation. Freud said that although the unconscious presents information through dreams, it is often in disguised form, and as such, there was a need to interpret dreams through examining dreams’ manifest content to uncover the unconscious meaning.
References
Bonevski, D., & Naumovska, A. (2018). Trauma and anxiety disorders throughout lifespan: Fear and anxiety from normality to disorder. Psychiatria Danubina, 30(Suppl 6), 384-389.
Starkstein, S. (2018). Sigmund Freud and the psychoanalytical concept of fear and anxiety. In A Conceptual and Therapeutic Analysis of Fear (pp. 231-257). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Wang, J. (2020). An Analysis of Salieri in Amadeus from Freudian Personality Theory: Id, Ego, Superego. In 3rd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences & Humanities (SOSHU 2020). https://doi. org/10.25236/soshu.
Understanding Academic Language
Understanding Academic Language
Name
Institution
Is There an Absolute Truth?
Notably, no student goes to school adept in academic language; therefore, it is imperative to help students to understand the academic discourse using, for example, a passage from an article. An online article, “Is there an absolute truth?” by Wallace, is a good example of the academic material that can help students to develop the academic thinking. In the first paragraph, the main thesis of the author is to provoke a critical view of what entails truth and what does not, by establishing whether reality represent “truth”, or “not true.” Briefly, Wallace contends that we have never learned to differentiate between reality and existence of truth, the same way we realize on the matters of faith that people cannot agree on a singular, absolute-faith (Wallace, 2013).
Basing the article in a class situation, students can analyze the paper using two ways: the language of the discipline and, the instructional language. The language of the discipline borrows from the idea that the students can analyze the article by using alliterations, axioms and class struggles. The language of the discipline focuses on understanding an academic material by using words and terminologies related to that discipline. Instructional language, on the other hand, uses textual clues to support an analysis of the passage or text. Preferably, student should the language of the discipline to discuss the article in a class conversation. Participation of the students in class helps them to understand different terminologies used in different disciplines. It is important to note that every discipline is unique, and there is a difficulty face by students when trying to discuss issues relating to different subjects. Therefore, using the language of the discipline can promote a critical analysis of a concept in a passage or a text, and help the student to develop the academic language when speaking. From the article, students can first list the terms used. For example, the article borrows from a philosophical argument and therefore, the student can note the use of contradicting words that are meant to provoke their thinking. These are the key words in philosophical language. Terminologies used in the article are, for example, “right” and “true.” Additionally, it is important to note that these are the most important terms when understanding what the author wanted to say. The next step involves establishing the relationship between the terms. For instance, the Wallace creates a gap seeking for more clarification when he identifies the problem of existence between the truth and the reality. The student should also categorize the terms and judge their specific usage, in order to distinguish their appropriateness in usage and to determine the relevance of the text. According to Wallace, he projects the notion that the idea of “truth” and “not true” depends on our state of minds; therefore, the search for an absolute truth will be a never-ending debate (Wallace, 2013).
Nevertheless, there is a criterion which can be used when assessing the student’s work. Academic writing skills must demonstrate good vocabulary use, good sentence structures. In addition, the student’s work should demonstrate good essay structuring, that is, the work should have an introduction, body and a conclusion. The work should identify the thesis, or the problem statement, and have a good flow of the arguments.
References
Wallace, J.W. (2013). Is There an Absolute Truth? Stand for Reason.
Retrieved from: http://www.str.org/articles/is-there-an-absolute-truth#.VJC1NaJbfcs
Understanding & Exploring the Connection Between Social Action and Social Movements
Understanding & Exploring the Connection Between Social Action and Social Movements
Williana Almonte
Sex, gender, and justice in global perspective
ISP 334 Prof O & Prof Brown.
Nov 9th, 2021
Understanding & Exploring the Connection Between Social Action and Social Movements
The #Me-Too Movement and Symbolic Interactionism Theory
The #Me-Too movement began a powerful campaign led by women to raise awareness of sexual assault and harassment that women face daily in the world. The movement’s goal was to increase awareness of this problem. As a consequence of the high levels of harassment experienced by women in Hollywood, which included assault, groping, rape, and molestation in 2017, the movement began in the United States of America in 2017. The actress Alyssa Milano invited her followers on Twitter to respond with the hashtag “me too” if they have ever been victims of sexual assault or harassment in any manner whatsoever. In a short period of time, more than 60,000 people answered, resulting in the movement’s name being established. The main of this is to look at the #Me-too campaign and its relationship to symbolic interactionism theory to raise awareness on sexual harassment that women face.
One of the movement’s goals is to empower women while raising awareness about the many obstacles women regularly encounter in their everyday lives. According to Google, the campaign has received extensive notoriety around the globe; the movement has been searched for in 196 countries, proving its broad popularity. To challenge and eliminate gender inequity and male hegemony, female activists have begun a cultural revolution that they hope will be successful. With the Me-Too movement, feminist activists deliver a message to a patriarchal society that women’s voices can no longer be ignored, and the world is finally taking notice.
The #Me-Too movement has resulted in a decrease in workplace harassment (inappropriate and unwanted touching, staring) according to around 60% of American working women since the campaign began. Researchers questioned more than 500 women in the United States in 2016 and again in 2018. They discovered that the number of sexual harassment incidents reported by women has reduced, suggesting that the Me-Too campaign has been effective. As a result of the #Me Too movement, males are less likely to coerce or manipulate women’s sexual favors sexually. The number of women who have been sexually attacked or harassed has decreased—stories like this show how the Me-Too movement has challenged conventional views of masculinity and masculinity in general. Men can no longer treat women as though they are only sexual objects while at work. As a consequence of the #MeToo movement, women have become more assertive in demanding respect and equality. Men are slowly starting to comply, putting their previously held hegemonic masculinity at risk.
#MeToo is a great interpretation of #metoo with symbolic interactionism. According to Symbolic interactionism, people’s thoughts come from social interaction. That’s why a social media movement can become popular so rapidly. Also, sexual abuse and harassment are usually seemed to be taboo. People with painful experiences are less likely to talk about and share (Johnson III, 2020). There is not much information for women, or men, of course, to learn how to react and deal with it. This movement does provide opportunities and help victims to protect and speak out for themselves. Symbolic interactionism is based on that people understand the meanings by observation. Therefore, we can consider #metoo can raise people’s awareness and empathy of sexual harassment. Many times, women may not even know they have encountered harassment or think it is rude. On the other hand, this movement can prevent some men who used to do so from criminals.
According to sociologist Jen Schradie, movements with a well-established organizational structure are more likely to succeed than others (Moitra, 2020). Moreover, she asserts that the well-structured organizations with volunteers and staff members who are solely focused on maintaining the organization’s online presence are the ones that engage in the most significant amount of online engagement. #MeToo has nearly the same level of intensity as the civil rights movement in terms of energy. It also has a more substantial online presence, which has built a significant organizational structure.
When it comes to this kind of movement, men and women are often perceived as conflicting with one another, and males would suffer as a consequence if women gained more significant influence. As a result of the #MeToo movement, it has become evident that men may be oppressed in the same ways that women are by a biased system against them (Leung, 2019). As the movement has shown, a more respectful approach toward consensual sex may benefit men and women. Many women have said that they have stopped blaming themselves for the sexual abuse they have suffered at the hands of other women worldwide after learning about the Me-Too movement. With the help of the campaign, women who have experienced sexual harassment in any form now have a safe space to recover and a platform to express themselves. With the ultimate goal of eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace and other facets of life by challenging the systems in place that allow sexual violence to thrive, the Me-Too movement has set itself a high bar for itself.
Although the Me-Too movement has had some success, men’s hegemonic masculinity over women in the workplace is slowly diminishing, while the unfairness women experience may be rising. Women polled in 2016 claimed that 76 percent of them had experienced workplace sexism; women surveyed in 2018 reported that the vast majority (almost all) had experienced it after the 2016 election. A possible explanation for men’s increased hostility toward women and sexism is the Me-Too movement, which advocates for sexual harassment and assault victims in the workplace. According to a survey conducted on male managers, males are even less inclined to work with women one-on-one, such as training or mentorship. When working with women, older, more senior men are apprehensive of whether it’s over business lunches, business holidays, or private meetings. Given that women would no longer get executive mentoring and guidance, this will do little to address the imbalance that women now suffer.
Business leaders and executives are on edge due to the #Me-Too movement; women may be avoided and isolated at work or not be hired at all. I find it fascinating that guys would prefer to stay away from interacting with women at work than treat them with decency and courtesy. Males are distancing themselves from women in the workplace due to the Me-Too movement since they see women as nothing more than consumable vessels (Gibson, 2019). Consequently, they cannot remain in the same room as women without being subjected to unwanted sexual advances. One-on-one engagement and mentoring foster the development of relationships and trust, which may result in a more positive and diverse workplace for both men and women; yet women are denied this opportunity because of workplace discrimination and inequality (Airey, 2018). Despite efforts to advance gender equality in management, excluding women from the workforce and the diminishing share of female senior executives have brought the movement to a grinding halt. As shown by multiple studies, sexual harassment is more likely to occur in firms when the top executives are males; as a result, there should be a more significant proportion of women in management roles. If there is still gender discrimination and a power imbalance in the office, sexual harassment will never be eliminated.
In addition to being a social movement, the Me-Too movement aspires to bring about legal and political changes to the sexist institutions that now exist in our society. Me-Too campaigners advocate for legislation to address issues of gender parity, such as equal pay and a safe working environment, among other things (Pipyrou, 2018). They are especially interested in the progress of low-wage women and women of color, among other things. An organization called “Time’s Up” has been founded to financially aid women who seek to utilize the court system to oppose sexual harassment they have encountered. The GoFundMe campaign for this legal fund earned more than $21 million in less than two months, making it the most successful campaign in the company’s history. Women are taking males who have sexually harassed them to court due to the Me-Too campaign. This step would not have been possible without the financial assistance and support offered by activists and the Me-Too movement. As a result of the #MeToo movement, Males are being reminded directly that the days of women’s voices being ignored or not being heard are over.
In a nutshell, sexual harassment in any form is appalling, and the women who have had to suffer it in quiet while they were mistreated have finally had enough of being harassed and abused. Because of the #MeToo movement, the gender gap and conventional concepts of femininity and masculinity have been aggressively questioned and contested. It all started with a small group of Hollywood celebrities and has blossomed into a worldwide movement that enables women to speak up against patriarchal norms and values. The discrepancy between men and women in terms of opportunities and incomes exists.
Still, the #Me-Too movement, which is fighting injustice in the legal system, has begun to close some of the residual disparities in society, although slowly. It seems that the notion of femininity is shifting, and women are speaking out for themselves and making it apparent to men by their acts and words that their bodies are not intended for male consumption (PettyJohn, 2019). As long as there is an issue with sexual assault and harassment against both men and women, #MeToo will succeed and grow in popularity. It is also successful since it addresses the problem with men and women rather than simply with women alone. This movement successfully raises the public’s awareness of sexual violence by using the particular function of the hashtag, which can be spread wildly and quickly through social media without time and space limit. It also changes the way people interact with others. People can share their experiences and thoughts by posting on social media instead of face-to-face. The influences of interaction between individuals have been more complex and wildly.
The #MeToo movement is still active, and even though not acting as a social media hashtag, it bore fruits that are active and moving forwards towards making sure that the place of women in the society is retained and that women understand what it means to be free from male chauvinism and male control. The #MeToo movement made many formant groups and organizations fight for women’s rights to be active, and that is how it is active today. The action is effective in several ways as women have gained a much-heard voice than before, and because of this, their existence has become better as they have respect and value. Even though it is not everything that a change involves which has been done, it is something to be proud of. There are still changes that need to be made, and these changes are significant in making women better every day.
Some groups are already being undertaken, and it is expected to grow with time towards all women. Before the #MeToo, there were other activities conducted by various organizations and groups to women dedicating to rooting out male chauvinism and ensuring equality. Though these groups were not very active, the #MeToo movement acted as a gear towards ensuring that those movements re-gained their focus. Therefore, generally, the action lives in groups and other social constructions given the responsibility of ensuring that women are equal to men in all aspects.
References
Airey, J. L. (2018). # MeToo. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 37(1), 7-13.
Johnson III, R. G., & Renderos, H. (2020). Invisible populations and the# MeToo Movement. Public Administration Review, 80(6), 1123-1126.
Leung, R., & Williams, R. (2019). # MeToo and intersectionality: An examination of the# MeToo movement through the R. Kelly scandal. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 43(4), 349-371.
Moitra, A., Hassan, N., Mandal, M. K., Bhuiyan, M., & Ahmed, S. I. (2020). Understanding the Challenges for Bangladeshi Women to Participate in the # MeToo Movement. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 4(GROUP), 1-25.
PettyJohn, M. E., Muzzey, F. K., Maas, M. K., & McCauley, H. L. (2019). # HowIWillChange: Engaging men and boys in the# MeToo movement. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 20(4), 612.
Pipyrou, S. (2018). # MeToo is little more than mob rule//vs//# MeToo is a legitimate form of social justice. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 8(3), 415-419.