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Thorner re-evaluates examination anxiety and similar anxieties in other test situations. After reviewing the origins of fears of castration and 'aphanisis' (a proposed term for total extinction of power of sexual enjoyment), he concludes that the main source of examination anxiety and numerous other symptoms is the internal threat by 'bad internal objects' which ultimately represent the patient's own aggressive tendencies. The resulting sense of internal persecution may be felt as unworthiness and incompetence, may be projected in the form of a fear of external persecution, or may be externalized and converted into a feared test situation. To illustrate he cites the case of an impotent man who prior to an interview for a job feared that he would be asked hostile questions about his nonexistent 'black record' and dreamed that red spiders were crawling in and out of his anus. When the black record and the spiders were interpreted as representing 'bad internal objects', the patient was relieved and was able to recognize something good in himself ('good internal objects'). Thus Thorner explains a complicated symptom by use of a single debatable concept. Only aggression is considered; important considerations such as castration threats, guilt feelings, exhibitionism, and passive feminine and masochistic wishes are either minimized or ignored.