Wong P S
Department of Psychology, New School for Social Research, Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, New York, NY 10003, USA.
J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 1999;47(3):817-41. doi: 10.1177/00030651990470031901.
A central tenet of psychoanalysis, and arguably of any comprehensive theory of mind, is the existence of a psychological unconscious. Years of clinical investigation into the nature of unconscious processes have facilitated the development of psychoanalysis as a clinical method. Empirical investigations of unconscious mental processes, however, have lagged behind clinical inquiry. With few exceptions, attempts to understand unconscious processes using rigorous experimental controls have remained sequestered in scientific domains other than psychoanalysis, where they have proliferated recently. In view of this recent upsurge of research on unconscious processes outside of psychoanalysis, efforts to integrate such knowledge into general theories of psychopathology and clinical investigation are critical. In this paper, an interdisciplinary approach is taken to the study of one aspect of unconscious mental functioning--what Freud originally termed signal anxiety. Signal anxiety is examined using information from cognitive psychology and learning theory, psychophysiology, behavioral neuroscience, and psychoanalytic theory. Though the original concept of signal anxiety is supported by recent research, it is concluded that signal anxiety is probably best thought of not as the affect of anxiety but as a subset of unconscious mental processes that have a signal function of anticipating danger. Such unconscious anticipatory processes are a general feature of the mind that includes responses to both real and imagined (neurotic) appraisals of a situation. The neurophysiological structures and processes associated with unconscious anticipation in humans are just beginning to be understood.
精神分析的一个核心信条，而且可以说是任何全面的心智理论的核心信条，是心理无意识的存在。多年来对无意识过程本质的临床研究推动了精神分析作为一种临床方法的发展。然而，对无意识心理过程的实证研究却落后于临床探究。除了少数例外，使用严格实验控制来理解无意识过程的尝试一直局限于精神分析之外的科学领域，而这些领域最近这类尝试激增。鉴于精神分析之外近期对无意识过程研究的热潮，将这类知识整合到精神病理学的一般理论和临床研究中的努力至关重要。在本文中，采用了一种跨学科方法来研究无意识心理功能的一个方面——即弗洛伊德最初所称的信号焦虑。利用认知心理学、学习理论、心理生理学、行为神经科学和精神分析理论的信息来考察信号焦虑。尽管信号焦虑的原始概念得到了近期研究的支持，但得出的结论是，信号焦虑可能最好不要被视为焦虑情绪，而是无意识心理过程的一个子集，这些过程具有预期危险的信号功能。这种无意识的预期过程是心智的一个普遍特征，包括对真实和想象（神经症性）情境评估的反应。与人类无意识预期相关的神经生理结构和过程才刚刚开始被理解。
