ANXIETY BETWEEN THE STRANGER AND THE OTHER: THE LIMITS OF THE SUBJECT IN CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/upj/2026-4-1-4Keywords:
anxiety, other, psychoanalysis, stranger, warAbstract
The article examines the phenomenon of anxiety through the lens of the psychoanalytic tradition, analyzing the interrelation between the categories of the subject, the Other, and the Stranger within the context of contemporary societal and wartime challenges. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that contemporary individuals increasingly encounter a crisis of symbolic foundations, experiences of trauma, uncertainty, and loss, while anxiety emerges not merely as a psychological symptom but as a structural experience of the subject. The aim of the paper is to investigate the nature of anxiety as an affect arising from the tension between the Stranger and the Other, as well as to conceptualize the processes of subjectivation, trauma, and the symbolic order. The author draws upon the concepts of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Slavoj Žižek, Hannah Arendt, and other scholars, combining classical psychoanalytic approaches with the contemporary socio-cultural context. The article further develops Jacques Lacan’s ideas that the subject is constituted through language, law, and the desire of the Other, and is therefore structurally split from the very beginning. The author describes the process of subjectivation through the mirror stage, entry into the symbolic order, and the experience of lack in the context of anxiety. Considerable attention is devoted to the problem of trauma, which is interpreted not only as a consequence of external events but also as a structural condition for the formation of the subject. According to the author, war intensifies the experience of the Real by destroying familiar symbolic coordinates and amplifying anxiety. Particular attention is paid to distinguishing between the concepts of the Other and the Stranger. The Other appears as the locus of language, law, and recognition, whereas the Stranger embodies radical otherness that provokes anxiety while simultaneously contributing to the formation of one’s own identity. In conclusion, the author argues that psychoanalysis does not seek to eliminate anxiety but rather to provide the conditions for its articulation, thereby helping the subject to comprehend their own desire, the boundaries of the self, and the experience of being in the contemporary world.
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