Feldman explains the common neurotic idea of being buried alive—which he connects with the other common idea of being completely alone in the world—as

a 'fear of not being loved and of being incapable of returning love'. This thesis is exemplified by two cases. 'In other patients, moral discontent with themselves was found to cause this obsessional idea'.

Feldman does not mention the specific problems surrounding this idea, nor the fact that it represents a special case of claustrophobia, nor that the feelings of oppression (which are characteristic of anxiety in general) are probably projected out into the narrow coffin (room) in the outside world.