The phylogenetic argument in Freud's metapsychology of anxiety.

Freud's theorising about anxiety has traditionally been based on its nosographical categories (anxiety neurosis, anxiety hysteria) or on the relationship between anxiety and repression (first and second theories of anxiety). While these types of approach have made it possible to identify some milestones in the development of the concept of anxiety, they have also obscured the relevance that Freud attributed to the phylogenetic argument. This article reviews the historical and conceptual context of Freud's main evolutionary references (Lamarck, Darwin, Haeckel, Weismann), and then analyses their presence and function in Freud's work, especially in his conception of anxiety.

[The energy metaphor for the human body and its effect on the rise of neurasthenia, neurosis and depression].

This article aims to provide a historical critique of the rise of three diagnostic categories: neurasthenia (late nineteenth century), neurosis (first half of the twentieth century) and depression (mid-twentieth century to the present). The hypothesis is that their broad dissemination can be explained through their link to the energy metaphor for the human body. From the mid-nineteenth century on, the concept of energy spread through western culture, encouraging certain fictions about what we are - the ontological dimension - and what we could be - the ethical dimension.