Obviously there are circumstances where the absence of trust could be adequately characterised as mistrust, either in respect of abstract systems or persons. The term “mistrust” applies most easily when we are speaking of the relation of an agent to a specific system, individual, or type of individual. In respect of abstract systems, mistrust means being sceptical about, or having an actively negative attitude toward, the claims to expertise that system incorporates. In the case of persons, it means doubting or disbelieving the claims to integrity their actions embody or display. However, “mistrust” is too weak a term to express the antithesis of basic trust, the focal element in a generalised set of relations to the social and physical environment. The forging of trust here is the very condition of acknowledging the clear identity of objects and persons. If basic trust is not developed or its inherent ambivalence not contained, the outcome is persistent existential anxiety. In its most profound sense, the antithesis of trust is thus a state of mind which could best be summed up as existential angst or dread.

DEFINE: Distinguishes mistrust (of specific systems/persons) from the deeper antithesis of basic trust, which psychologists conceptualize as existential dread.

Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Moderni…, loc. 243