WHAT IS ANXIETY AND HOW SHOULD WE TREAT IT

This paper provides an overview of this special issue on anxiety and a ttempts some integration. It concludes that a generally acceptable def inition of 'anxiety' is lacking but that, even in the absence of such a definition, a coherent picture of both normal and pathological anxie ty is emerging. The key problem in the past has been dissentangling a number of dialectically linked entities. It is argued that panic, obse ssive compulsive disorder and eating disorders should all be viewed as intrinsically separate from anxiety - but that each can, on occasion, be both a cause and an effect of anxiety. Equally, even if it were po ssible to isolate a pure anxiety, uncontaminated by these other reacti ons, it is argued that this anxiety will include separate cognitive, a utonomic, expressive and skeletal reactions each of which can arise fo r independent causes, and each of which tends to interact dialecticall y with the other. It is suggested that if account is taken of the dial ectical interactions, between the components of anxiety and between an xiety and related emotions, it may be possible in the future to develo p tests which can separate superficially similar symptomatologies into different cases requiring specific combinations of therapies.