ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of agoraphobia, the phobia referred to by Sigmund Freud as a "locomotor phobia". Agoraphobia and claustrophobia are disorders associated with a primitive perception of space and, as such, often defend against disturbances of a psychotic nature. Karl Abraham perceives agoraphobia as a manifestation of both a fear of life—represented by the outside world—and also a fear of death, that might strike when the agoraphobic is away from the person they love. Phobia functions as a way of initiating withdrawal to a special sense of self, as a defence against a demand for relatedness, perceived by the phobic personality as a compulsion to surrender to the object. A phobia can function as a structure that gives form to the dread of death, the fear and trembling in the face of infinity, and the problem of finding meaning in the face of consciousness of death.
