Phobic objects are overdetermined by infantile affect and resist rational correction

Evidence

Investigating the psychic structure of the phobic, he comes to this conclusion: “Before attacking the adult beliefs, all the elements of the infantile structure which produced them must be analyzed.” The choice of the phobic object is therefore overdetermined. This object does not come at random out of the void of nothingness; in some situation it has previously evoked an affect in the patient. His phobia is the latent presence of this affect at the root of his world; there is an organization that has been given a form. For the object, naturally, need not be there, it is enough that somewhere it exist: It is a possibility. This object is endowed with evil intentions and with all the attributes of a malefic power. In the phobic, affect has a priority that defies all rational thinking. As we can see, the phobic is a person who is governed by the laws of rational prelogic and affective prelogic: methods of thinking and feeling that go back to the age at which he experienced the event that impaired his security. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 589

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the phobic structure Fanon applies to racial attitudes: overdetermination, affect-priority, prelogic.
• QUESTION: Interesting that Fanon asks whether Negrophobic men had actual rape/fellatio traumas — does he ever resolve the genetic-method difficulty?
• XREF: connects to: The phobic object is overdetermined and has previously evoked an affect; Inauthentic love lets the beloved ratify one’s infantile fantasies instead of moving beyond them; The uncanny surfaces when foreign scenes trigger repressed childhood imagery. (+8 more)

Related

• The phobic object is overdetermined and has previously evoked an affect (similarity 0.88)

Broader Connections

• Neurotic structure erupts from environment and the individual’s personal reactions combined. #expands (0.75)
• The uncanny surfaces when foreign scenes trigger repressed childhood imagery. #expands (0.60)
• The nails-on-chalkboard aversion resists single-discipline explanation #qualifies (0.40) — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 496