Signal Anxiety

Signal anxiety, a theory developed by Sigmund Freud, represents evolutionary progress since it involves anticipatory behavior. An infant doesn’t experience anxiety when faced with loss of an object but does when faced with fearing loss of love from the object. Signal anxiety recognizes repression is not the cause of anxiety but the consequence of it. Anxiety alerts the infant to dangers of possible separation—anxiety isn’t the expression of an instantaneous, automatic reaction to separation. Signal anxiety concerns “danger situations” or threats arising from being helpless or at others’ mercy: threats of losing a loved one, of losing another’s love, or of being attacked. Freud reversed his former position: from anxiety resulting from repression to preceding repression and giving rise to it. This places anxiety more centrally in the psyche: instead of being a side-effect of repression, it is essential to the mind’s working to avoid anxiety. Signal anxiety distinguishes between:

• Primary automatic anxiety, triggered by trauma overwhelming the helpless ego.
• Signal anxiety, triggered in the ego response to a warning of an imminent dangerous or traumatic situation, to put defensive measures in place to avoid it.