Abstract

Fear occurs in various forms: existential, pathological, physical and mental. This article gives a general survey of Freud's and Lacan's conceptions. While the founder of psychoanalysis conceives of fear mainly as a corporeal fear of castration, Lacan emphasises the more extended dimension of symbolic castration which is, through the concept of scarcity, directly connected with desire and fear. The pathological side of fear becomes apparent in the defence against existential fear, in phobias, that replace the unfathomable object of fear by a manageable one.