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<blockquote>The sufferer from agoraphobia imposes a restriction upon his ego in [[order ]] to escape an [[instinctual ]] [[danger]]. The instinctual danger in question is the temptation to yield to his [[erotic ]] desires; and to yield to [[them ]] would be to reincarnate once again, as in [[childhood]], the specter of the danger of castra­tion or of an analogous danger. As an example I may refer to the [[case ]] of a young man who became agoraphobic because he was afraid of yielding to the allurements of prostitutes and of acquiring syphilis as a [[punishment]]. The symptomatology of agoraphobia is complicated by the fact that the ego is not con­tent with renouncing something; in addition to this, it takes steps to deprive the [[situation ]] of its danger. This additional measure is usually a [[regression ]] to childhood (in extreme cases, to the uterus, to a period when one was protected against the dangers which threaten today); the regression constitutes the condition under which the [[renunciation ]] [[need ]] not be made. Thus the agoraphobic may go on the street provided that, like a small [[child]], he is accompanied by a person in whom he has [[full ]] confidence. A similar caution may also permit him to go out alone, provided that he does not go more than a certain distance away from home, that he does not enter localities which he does not [[know ]] well and where the [[people ]] do not know him. In the [[choice ]] of these specifications there becomes [[manifest ]] the influence of the [[infantile ]] motives which govern him.<ref>{{PoA}} Ch. 7</ref></blockquote>