This text aims to expose chronologically the construction of the concept of anxiety in Freud for, soon after, to relate that démarche to the construction of the author´s social theories. The main conclusion is that Freud can only build a generic theory of culture and society when he can relate the generic human feeling of helplessness (Hilflosigkeit) with the infantile state of helplessness. It was made possible only from 1926 on, after the publication of “Inhibition, symptom, and anxiety”, where the author explains the anxiety as a reaction to danger.
psychoanalytical theory; psychoanalysis; anxiety