Anxiety and logos: Toward a linguistic analysis of the origins of human thinking

Abstract

Background Delving in the origins and meanings of key words of the psychiatric terminology can help understanding the nature of mental disorders. In the present paper we analyze the meanings of anxiety and related words in modern European languages and we traced the etymology back to Protonostratic. At a certain point the archaeology of the word anxiety is confronted with the Greek word logos. Methods Review of dictionaries of modern and of Indo-European and Nostratic families of languages. Results The Protonostratic root of anxiety (nk) has lead to words signifying fear and constriction but also to others referring to destiny or the origin or sense of life. Logos is the answer to the anxiety produced by the confrontation with the meaning of existence. The Protonostratic root of logos (leg) has two meanings: One is to lie in front of, the second one is to gather put in order, what is in front of us. This second meaning is present in the Greek logos which means both though and language. Limitations The study considers only a few modern and ancient languages. Research on hypothetical non-written and extinct languages is sometimes speculative and there is no full agreement among scholars. Conclusions Anxiety is a symptom present in many psychiatric disorders; it is also a fundamental feeling of human beings confronting the meaning of life. Thinking and verbalizing are the strategies to confront anxiety. They manifest themselves in everyday clinical practice, but they were also present at the origins of rational thinking in the human species.