Freud also thought at one time that anxiety was the result of an unconscious memory of the birth trauma . The most recent view in psychoanalysis is that anxiety has two distinct characters. One signals towards changes in the environment, when the person makes an appraisal of internal or external danger. Each is a system of defence. In mental disorders there is a distortion of the reality of the internal picture, which in turn distorts the external picture.
People suffering from neurosis usually suffer much greater levels of anxiety.
Freud saw anxiety as a self-preservation instinct, and this is echoed in other psychological views which see it as an essential response to danger, part of the fight or flight reaction, a useful function, and part of the human condition. Others see anxiety as a disruptive element in dealing with danger. In cognitive models the external threat is seen as being followed by the appraisal of threat and then by coping behaviour. Anxiety comes in at the appraisal stage, and is usually based on a false picture. This causes unnecessary suffering in a misjudged situation, and more danger in a truly threatening encounter.