Phobias

People with phobias may experience extreme anxiety and find that phobic avoidance restricts their lives. A person with claustrophobia (anxiety in an enclosed space) may never use a lift, one with aerophobia (anxiety of flying) may never visit far off countries. A phobic character (refusing to be parted from a protective other) habitually avoids anxiety situations, whereas a counter-phobic character seeks out such situations, taking satisfaction from mastering them.

 

The phobic object or situation often arouses anxiety not on it's own account, but because it is a symbol for some other idea that the phobic person defends themself against. The artist Louise Bourgeois encapsulated this symbolic function of phobias at London's Tate Modern in her popular sculpture 'Maman' (Mother), a giant spider with her offspring. The spider, a socially acceptable phobic object, symbolises the artist's (and other's) anxieties about childhood and mothering.

 

There are different causes which produce the symptom of phobia. The cause is believed to be, in psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy, an unconscious conflict, in cognitive behavioural therapy, catastrophic thinking, and in evolutionary psychology, evolutionary adaptation. If you are concerned about a problem do not diagnose yourself. Always consult your GP or a therapist who is qualified to both diagnose the issue and help you work through it.