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[[Benjamin ]] Ball introduced the term "claustrophobia" into the field of [[psychiatric ]] [[semiology ]] in 1879. It is derived from the [[Latin ]] claustrum (enclosed [[place]]) and the Greek phobos ([[fear]]). Claustrophobia is defined as the fear of enclosed spaces. Faced with the [[impossibility ]] of escape, the person [[suffering ]] from claustrophobia fears [[being ]] suffocated, being crushed, losing [[consciousness]], or losing [[control ]] of his actions or sphincter muscles. Avoidance techniques are then developed together with counterphobic [[behavior ]] (being accompanied by [[another ]] person, carrying a key) or behavioral modifications (opening doors and windows, positioning oneself near an exit).

The [[word ]] is part of psychiatric semiology. Albert Pitres and Emmanuel Régis (1902) classify claustrophobia as a [[phobia ]] of place, and Pierre Janet as one of the systematic [[anxieties ]] constituting psychasthenia. [[Recent ]] British and American [[clinical ]] [[practice ]] includes claustrophobia among the simple phobias, often associated with [[agoraphobia]], which predominantly [[affect ]] [[women ]] and are rare in [[children ]] ([[Freud]], A., 1977).

For [[Sigmund Freud ]] claustrophobia is one of the phobias of locomotion, similar to agoraphobia. Its metapsychological status evolved along with the [[development ]] of his theories of [[anxiety ]] and the [[construction ]] of phobias. Freud first considered it as one of the chronic [[symptoms ]] of neurasthenia (Manuscript B, 1893, in 1950a). Later he distinguished it, along with the [[other ]] phobias, from the obsessions ("Obsessions and Phobias," 1895c), ultimately associating it with anxiety [[hysteria ]] (1905d). In his early writings, he [[interpreted ]] claustrophobia as the result of an [[excess ]] of unused [[libido]]. He related it to [[castration ]] anxiety, produced by the [[repression ]] of [[oedipal ]] [[desire]]. Here, the emergence of free anxiety was [[displaced ]] and projected onto the [[phobic ]] [[object]], in this [[case ]] an enclosed [[space]].

Melanie [[Klein ]] (1932/1975) believed it involved a projective [[identification ]] with the dangerous [[body ]] of the [[mother]], with the anxiety of being enclosed there and [[castrated ]] by the [[father]]'s [[penis]]. Bertram D. Lewin (1935) proposed a similar definition of claustrophobia, in which he refers to an [[unconscious ]] [[fantasy ]] of [[return ]] to the [[maternal ]] [[breast]], accompanied by [[oral ]] [[fantasies ]] of being devoured. For Otto Fenichel (1953) the enclosed space that is feared represents the [[patient]]'s body and the sensations the patient is trying to get rid of through [[projection ]] of excess [[excitation ]] onto the claustrum. The phobogenic [[situation ]] mobilizes [[infantile ]] anxieties, the fear of solitude, and the temptation to masturbate. François Perrier (1956/1994) saw claustrophobia as being organized like [[speech]], where, [[symbolically]], a key held in the hand enables one to avoid the anxiety, thus escaping the enclosed [[world ]] of the mother and making access to the father possible. Some authors explored other aspects of claustrophobia, analyzing its [[associations ]] with [[depression ]] (Gehl, R. H., 1965) or agoraphobia (Weiss, E. 1964).

See also: Phobic [[neurosis]]; [[Phobias in children]].[[Bibliography]]

Further [[Reading]]