IDEAS IN PSYCHOANLYSIS
Phobia
IVAN WARD
IDEAS IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
Phobia Ivan Ward
Series editor: Ivan Ward
ICON BOOKS UK TOTEM BOOKS USA
Published in the UK in 2001 by Icon Books Ltd., Grange Road, Duxford, Cambridge CB2 4QF E-mail:
[email protected] www.iconbooks.co.uk Sold in the UK, Europe, South Africa and Asia by Faber and Faber Ltd., 3 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AU or their agents Distributed in the UK, Europe, South Africa and Asia by Macmillan Distribution Ltd., Houndmills, Basingstoke RG21 6XS Published in Australia in 2001 by Allen & Unwin Pty. Ltd., PO Box 8500, 83 Alexander Street, Crows Nest, NSW 2065
Published in the USA in 2001 by Totem Books Inquiries to: Icon Books Ltd., Grange Road, Duxford Cambridge CB2 4QF, UK Distributed to the trade in the USA by National Book Network Inc., 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 20706 Distributed in Canada by Penguin Books Canada, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario M4V 3B2 ISBN 1 84046 244 2
Text copyright © 2001 Ivan Ward The author has asserted his moral rights. Series editor: Ivan Ward No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Typesetting by Hands Fotoset Printed and bound in the UK by Cox & Wyman Ltd., Reading
A bridge too far: the phobic reaction Suppose you are crossing Hungerford Bridge in London with someone who suffers from Gephyrophobia – a fear of crossing bridges. As you walk from Embankment underground station and ascend the stone steps which take you onto the bridge, your companion starts to talk nervously about the prospect of crossing it. You arrive on the bridge and his body begins to stiffen, his head held very still as he stares straight ahead. After a few steps he begins to sweat and holds on to your hand, clutching it tighter and tighter as you guide him across. You notice that he cannot help glancing downwards into the water, especially through the gap between the pedestrian bridge and the railway bridge to which it is attached. Unmistakable signs of panic are taking him over as you arrive at the centre of your crossing – profuse sweating, rapid breathing and heartbeat, clenched muscles and a wide-eyed look of fear. You try to say something to calm him down. ‘Don’t talk!’, he says. All of his concentration is being mustered to take on the task in hand. Suddenly he exhales deeply and his body 3
PHOBIA
relaxes. He releases his grip on your hand and starts to walk more confidently forward. ‘What’s happened?’, you ask. ‘It’s okay once I’ve got halfway over’, he says, and you are left pondering the origin and development of such a phobia.
Helter skelter: science of the irrational Most people do not question why a child is scared of the dark, or why a person hates tomatoes. We slide the emotional response and the putative stimulus together. ‘I hate tomatoes.’ In the simple declarative we posit a causal relation between the psychological output ‘hate’ and the culinary input ‘tomatoes’. If someone comes along and asks ‘Why?’, we feel uncomfortable, not wanting our likes and dislikes to be scrutinised too closely. Freud realised that the supposed chain of causality was little more than an illusion. Inputs and outputs did not really ‘add up’. By questi