According to Merriam Webster Dictionary a phobia is, “An exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.” We all have them, including the most fearless people we know. One of my biggest fears is being alone, commonly known as monophobia. My whole life I’ve been surrounded by friends and family encouraging me to be the best that I can be. Since I have come to college and moved out of my parent’s house, I’ve felt the most alone I have ever been. There’s not someone always there telling me what to do or worry about where I’m going. I don’t always have someone to go to if I need to talk. What are your biggest fears/ phobias?
In my Philosophy class we’re reading The Ego and the Id by Sigmund Freud and it actually talks about phobias. “The ego is the actual seat of anxiety. Threatened by dangers from three directions, it develops the flight reflex by withdrawing its own cathexis from the menacing perception or from the similarity regarded process in the id, and emitting it as anxiety. This primitive reaction is later replaced by the carrying out of protective cathexes (the mechanism of the phobias).” (47) Basically your ego, which is responsible for our sense of personal identity, escapes your personal problems by forming phobias. How do you see yourself? Are you happy with who you are?