Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneurosesFreud, Sigmund
Science
Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses
Freud, Sigmund
Hysteria; Neuroses; Psychoanalysis
7. On the basis of the chronic anxiousness (anxious expectation) on the
one hand, and the tendency to vertiginous attacks of anxiety on the
other, there develop two groups of typical phobias; the first refers to
the general physiological menaces, while the second refers to
locomotion. To the first group belong the fear for snakes,
thunderstorms, darkness, vermin, etc., as well as the typical moral
overscrupulousness, and the forms of doubting mania. Here the available
fear is merely used to strengthen those aversions which are
instinctively implanted in every man. But usually a compulsively acting
phobia is formed only after a reminiscence is added to an experience in
which this fear could manifest itself; as, for example, after the
patient has experienced a storm in the open air. To attempt to explain
such cases as mere continuations of strong impressions is incorrect.
What makes these experiences significant and their reminiscences durable
is after all only the fear which could at that time appear and can also
appear today. In other words such impressions remain forceful only in
persons with “anxious expectations.”
The other group contains agoraphobia with all its accessory forms, all
of which are characterized by their relation to locomotion. As a
determination of the phobia we frequently find a precedent attack of
vertigo; I do not think that it can always be postulated. Occasionally,
after a first attack of vertigo without fear, we see that though
locomotion is always accompanied by the sensation of vertigo, it remains
possible without any restrictions, but as soon as fear attaches itself
to the attack of vertigo, locomotion fails, under the conditions of
being alone, narrow streets, etc.
The relation of these phobias to the phobias of obsessions, which
mechanism I discussed above,[42] is as follows: The agreement lies in
the fact that here as there, an idea becomes obsessive through its
connection with an available affect. The mechanism of transposition of
the affect therefore holds true for both kinds of phobias. But in
phobias of the anxiety neurosis this affect is (1) a monotonous one, it
is always one of anxiety; (2) it does not originate from a repressed
idea, and on psychological analysis it proves itself not further
reducible, nor can it be attacked through psychotherapy. The mechanism
of substitution does not therefore hold true for the phobias of anxiety
neurosis.
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