ABSTRACT
Phobia is a manifestation of anxiety hysteria which ensures that the libido freed by repression is bound, in such a way that the subject is then able to avoid the anxiety and the original focus of the anxiety. Sigmund Freud pointed out that the "area of phobia" may be extended, with the result that the individual is more restricted in their daily life, even as they become more thoroughly protected from the original source of fear or anxiety. The phobia—in its protective aspect—is a way of enabling the person to control their anxiety and thus to control a bit of their world. The phobia is there for a reason, and "taking away" the fear of the phobic object might merely make the space for yet another phobic object. The chapter addresses symptoms in Jungian analysis, to a large extent, by mediating the transcendent function or dialectic between unconscious and conscious.
