Abstract
The phobic phenomenon of avoidance is characteristic of childhood. The syndrome school phobia involves more complex psychological mechanisms than are ordinarily encountered in phobias. Several of these mechanisms having clinical and psychodynamic significance are discussed. The impact of the primary objects upon the child creates a shared illusion of primordial omnipotence which flourishes at home and helps maintain the security and adequacy systems of child and family. The special kind of nurturance received at home is not available in school, where reward and punishment are based upon realistic performance; hence, the illusion is sooner or later dispelled by real or imagined social or academic failure. The ego is then flooded with waves of fear and rage and with previously repressed. unresolved oedipal and preoedipal conflicts. The phobic mechanism is invoked for the purpose of stemming the tide and containing these emotions and restoring homeostasis. Premature pressure to return to school may precipitate or release an underlying psychoses. This construct emphasizes the unequivocal importance of the child-family unit as basic to the understanding of school phobia. Although there are profound and critical intrapsychic phenomena present, to consider these primarily in isolation is to acknowledge only a segment of what appears to be a complex that is forged and transmitted over successive generations.
Published Version
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