With Gottschalk's and Gleser's technique for quantitative verbal content analysis it has been shown that in general females suffering from anxiety neurosis (N = 30) frequently verbalize their anxiety, even though they are not in an acute state of anxiety. There is, however, no significant increase in the expression of diffuse anxiety or death anxiety (as might be expected from the psychopathological description). The verbal behaviour of the patients displays a variety of facets that support the psychodynamic hypothesis of the crucial role of the separation problem, i.e. it is shown that a) the separation anxiety is significantly higher than in a representative sample of normal subjects; b) this anxiety is one of the decisive factors in discriminating between anxiety neurosis and other psychiatric disorders, and c) a significant positive correlation between separation anxiety and inward directed hostility is observed only in anxiety neurosis patients. The highly significant increase in guilt anxiety, coupled with a tendency towards a lack of outward directed hostility, seems to suggest a close interrelationship between anxiety neurosis and depressive neurosis. Pointing in the same direction is the fact that the deficit in outward directed hostility or the excess of inward directed hostility are decisive factors for discriminating between anxiety neurosis and other psychiatric disorders.
Adult Aggression