Sigmund Freud believed that phobias were caused by a repressed fear of an event or object. He believed that the phobia was a way for the person to avoid the fear.
Freud’s theory of the mind is based on three structures: the id, ego and superego. The id consists of unconscious desires and drives. The ego is the rational part of our personality that mediates between our desires and our actions. The superego is made up of our conscience and moral code. It is influenced by parents, teachers, peers and other significant people in our lives. It is how we learn what is right and wrong. If something goes wrong in any one of these areas, it can lead to phobias or other mental disorders.
In his theory of anxiety neurosis, Freud proposed that anxiety was caused by conflict between the id and superego. He believed that many children had sexual feelings toward their parents but repressed them because they were taught not to have such thoughts or feelings about their parents (the Oedipus complex). These children would then develop a fear of castration as punishment for their sexual feelings toward their parents (castration anxiety).
According to Freud, phobias occur when we experience some sort of trauma at an early age, such as being bitten by a dog or being locked up in a closet by an adult. This trauma causes an intense emotional reaction, but because it was so traumatic we blocked it out from our conscious mind (this process is known as repression).
