ter. Whether the moral values a man accepts are rational or irrational, man cannot escape the knowledge that, in
order to deal with reality successfully, in order to live, he needs some sort of moral principles to guide him; he
cannot escape his nature as a conceptual being. And, implicit in this knowledge, is the awareness (however dim,
however confused by the other-worldly teachings of mystics) that ethical principles are a practical necessity of his
life on earth. A corollary of this awareness is his expectation that moral and immoral actions have consequences,
even if he cannot always predict them. If he takes actions which he regards as good, he expects to benefit,
existentially or psychologically; if he takes actions which he regards as bad, he expects to suffer, existentially or
psychologically—although this expectation is often evaded and repressed. Thus, what he is left with, if and when
he betrays his own standards, is the sense of some unknown danger, some unknown retribution, waiting for him
ahead.
It would be a gross error to interpret this attitude as merely a consequence of the influence of religion. The issue is
much wider and deeper. It arises—to repeat—from man's implicit awareness that he cannot live successfully
without some long-range principles to guide his actions. (As to religion, it merely represents, among other things, a
misguided and irrational attempt to satisfy this need—or to cash in on it.)
The experience of pathological anxiety always involves and reflects conflict. Not all conflicts, however, result in
pathological anxiety. Conflicts per se are not pathological. A particular kind of conflict is involved in neurotic
anxiety—and the acute anxiety attack is occasioned by the ego's confrontation with that conflict.
Let us consider three different instances of an anxiety attack, in order to observe in what manner this occurs and to
grasp the nature of the conflict involved.
- A mild, undistinguished clerk has held the same position for twenty years. He feels embarrassed and humiliated
by the number of times he has been passed by for promotion. He does not complain to his superiors; but he
complains to his wife and talks endlessly about how much better he would run things if he were given a position
with more responsibility and authority.
He is a man who never wanted to think, has done the minimum amount of thinking possible, and secretly wants
nothing