phobia n. Any irrational and persistent fear, whether of a situation, activity, or object; a phobia typically leads to a strong desire to avoid the object of the phobia.
... makes what is unconscious conscious, and enables the patient to re-educate himself, to use the old repressed emotion up in his daily life. Analysis means release. Suggestion does not touch the root repressed emotion, and I fancy that after suggestion the symptom merely changes. A man has a phobia of cats. By suggestion I can dispel his fear of cats, but the fear is transferred to something else, and he then has an exaggerated fear of catching tuberculosis. Unless the ancient cause becomes conscious ... — A Dominie in Doubt • A. S. Neill
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