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The first objective of this presentation is to re-examine and re-evaluate the conventional psychoanalytic attitude which holds that phobias are a manifestation of hysteria. In order to do this, it is necessary first to review our present-day views about anxiety, since the forerunner of the phobia is the anxiety attack. Phobic symptom formation, its specific qualities, characteristics, and functions are then described, in order to determine whether phobias can be tied to any diagnostic category. The final section of this paper concerns some speculations arising from a comparison of the anxious and the depressed patient.
A phobia is a special variety of neurotic fear. The anxiety in the phobias is bound and fixed to certain specific conditions. By avoiding the anxiety-provoking situations, the phobic patient attempts to avoid the severe anxiety attack which preceded and led to the formation of the phobia. A phobia is a defense against anxiety. One form of anxiety is used defensively against another. Apparently, anxiety which is linked and tied to certain circumstances and conditions is more controllable and therefore less frightening than free-floating anxiety.
Phobias may arise suddenly or gradually, may fluctuate considerably in intensity, or remain relatively rigid and chronic. They may occur singly, although that is rare and usually a morbid indication. Ordinarily, there are constellations of phobias: major ones and minor ones, early ones and later editions or derivatives, often arranged defensively around some primary and central phobia. There are phobic attitudes when phobic reactions influence character formation and one can speak of phobic character