Title: Anxiety at work

Authors: Antoinette Lovichi

Addresses: Institut de Management Public et de Gouvernance Territoriale, 21, rue Gaston de Saporta, 13621 Aix-En-Provence, France

Abstract: The signal of anxiety in professional situations is mostly unnoticed because the anguished actor is rather rejected or marginalised in his working structure. The signs of anxiety are generally interpreted, in the evolving structures, as a difficulty in adapting to alterations or breaks. In fact, Freud clarifies that the seat of anxiety is the Ego and that the signal of anguish shows the fear of the loss of love. Lacan goes a step further by indicating that the anxiety has something to do with the stage of the mirror, the moment of the identifications of the subject. It is therefore the crack of the Desire that awakens anxiety when the speech of the other obliges the actor to cut investment in his professional activities by creating imago in which it is impossible to recognise himself.

Keywords: anxiety; work; human resources; organisations; Lacan theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRDM.2007.012282

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 2007 Vol.7 No.1, pp.20 - 25

Published online: 02 Feb 2007 *

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