ABSTRACT
There is still another type of hysteria, which does not number among its manifestations the obscure phenomenon of conversion, and which analysts consequently are able to understand more completely. The reader will recall that in the preceding chapter we chose blushing as an example of an hysterical conversion symptom. It is well known that in many cases such hysterical blushing starts with, or is accompanied by, a painful feeling of anxiety and the thought “I am going to blush.” In many hysterical individuals, this feeling of anxiety is so emphasized that it is relatively unimportant whether the blushing occurs or not. In other words, the symptom of anxiety, and not the conversion symptom, occupies the foreground of the picture. This condition is called erythrophobia and is often accompanied by ideas of being observed and other feelings which suggest ideas of reference, so that it may to a certain extent resemble some of the paranoia disorders. There are, however, much simpler phobias in which only anxiety as such appears as the essential feature. A person may, for example, be afraid to go out on certain streets or squares, and may finally give up going out at all except with a companion. In such a case, it is obvious that the whole “phobic fagade” merely serves the purpose of avoiding the anxiety which would break through if the patient dispensed with such precautions. In other words, the phobia proper is a defense against anxiety, and the anxiety itself is the essential symptom in these disorders: Freud has designated them anxiety hysterias . 1
