Fear of Heights

The familiar symptom of acrophobia has not so far been singled out for special investigation; it leads a “summary existence” in our literature, being “also mentioned” when neurotic fears are discussed. Fear of heights deserves a better fate; it is characterized by a series of special features.

Although generally subsumed under phobic-hysteriform mechanisms, acrophobia is—in my experience—encountered exclusively among orally regressed neurotics, and then only when there are disturbances in the voyeuristic-exhibitionistic sphere. It is not surprising, therefore, that the situation most often met with is that of a patient with street fear who also complains of fear of heights. However, it should be stated that fear of heights is not the exclusive prerogative of the agoraphobe; it may appear independently of agoraphobia. The presence of a voyeuristic-exhibitionistic disturbance does seem to be typical.

One might find the latter connection far-fetched, or even declare it non-existent, only if unfamiliar with the fact that this voyeuristic-exhibitionistic disturbance is also present in pathological jealousy (1): What every jealous person consciously dreads most is the persistent presence, in his mind's eye, of an imaginary picture showing the object of his jealousy with his rival in an intimate scene. At first he keeps the suspicions thus engendered to himself, but subsequently he exhibitionistically airs them to his friends, allegedly for the purpose of ranging them, indignantly and sympathetically, on his side. Voyeuristic-exhibitionistic disturbances also characterize depersonalization (2), writer's block (3), erythrophobia (4), boredom (alysosis) (5), etc.

Fear of heights unconsciously dramatizes two inner conflicts:

1. “Bad mother will let the baby (the fear sufferer) drop from her arms.”

2. “It is not true that I'm exhibiting my genitals to anyone who stands below looking at me up here. The truth is that I'm not an exhibitionist, but just a person who came up to this height fo