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The traumatic 'suffocation' caused by the interruption of the fetal circulation prior to the first breath results in the newborn's 'birth anxiety'. This registers for all time in the unconscious and returns from the repressed to plague the adult with nightmares of suffocation or claustrophobia. As evidence for this thesis Fodor cites dreams of his patients, a modicum of their associations thereto, and his interpretation of the latent dream symbolism.
One dream is presented with sufficient identifying data for the reader to judge the verity of the original thesis. It is that of a forty-four-year-old claustrophobic woman, the death of whose father shortly after her birth resulted in her somewhat masculine personality. The dream lends itself to superficial analysis as an expression of hostility to the husband and thus to a reluctance on her part to relate it. However, Fodor's interpretation of the implicit trauma of birth results in allaying her anxiety considerably. He then points out that such 'interpretation on a biological level relieves the patient of individual misfortune' and is thus, in his experience, of great practical value. It is, of course, unfortunate that the newborn is unable to speak and to corroborate the persistence of the birth trauma in later symptoms. Fodor's associations to the symbols contained in his dreams, as well as those of his patients in the analytic transference situation, are offered as a substitute.