the declaration that this may have been true in the Victorian age, but in our day the source of anxiety is the
emergence of hostile impulses.
In fact, the basic principle involved is demonstrably wider than either of these explanations. Pathological anxiety
is—to repeat—a crisis of self-esteem, and the possible sources of anxiety are as numerous as the rational or
irrational values on which a person's self-appraisal may be based.
There are certain facts about the nature of these anxiety-producing conflicts that must be noted. 1. The value-
imperative involved in the conflict may be rational or irrational; it may be consonant with the facts of reality and
with man's nature, or it may be contrary to both. 2. The value-imperative entails a standard, expectation, demand, or
claim which, rightly or mistakenly, the person believes should be within his volitional power to satisfy. This belief
may not be held consciously; but it is implicit in the fact that what is involved is a value-imperative, and that the
person holds himself morally at fault if he fails that imperative. 3. The person implicitly experiences his moral
breach as deterministically indicative of his "real" self. 4. The conflict, qua conflict, is typically subconscious;
either half of it, however, may be conscious or partially conscious.
This last does not mean that if and when the conflict becomes entirely conscious, the anxiety automatically
disappears; the anxiety is often maintained by the vast psycho-epistemological chaos that underlies the conflict and
prevents it from being resolved. Furthermore, the unblocking of one repressed conflict often tends to stir up and
release other repressed conflicts, which are anxiety provoking.
There are cases, however, when the anxiety does disappear, once the central conflict is de-repressed—particularly
when the conflict is seen to be readily solvable.
Guilt
One of the most significant aspects of the anxiety experience, whether chronic or acute, is the factor of guilt. The
degree of consciously experienced guilt does not necessarily correspond to the degree of consciously experienced
anxiety. The awareness of guilt