The phobic object is overdetermined and has previously evoked an affect

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 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Social change is explained by overdetermination drawn from Freud; Phobic objects are overdetermined by infantile affect and resist rational correction — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 589; Obsession is a pathological narrowing of focus anyone could suffer — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 381

Related

• Phobic objects are overdetermined by infantile affect and resist rational correction (similarity 0.88)

Broader Connections

• Phobic objects are overdetermined by infantile affect and resist rational correction #corroborates (0.85) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 589