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<blockquote>The relation of the [[child ]] to animals has much in common with that of [[primitive ]] man. The child does not yet show any trace of the pride which afterwards moves the [[adult ]] [[civilized ]] man to set a sharp dividing line between his own [[nature ]] and that of all [[other ]] animals. The child unhesitatingly attributes [[full ]] equality to animals; he probably feels himself more closely related to the [[animal ]] than to the undoubtedly mysterious adult, in the [[freedom ]] with which he acknowledges his [[needs]].<BR>Not infrequently a curious [[disturbance ]] manifests itself in this excellent [[understanding ]] between child and animal. The child suddenly begins to [[fear ]] a certain animal [[species ]] and to protect himself against [[seeing ]] or [[touching ]] any [[individual ]] of this species. There results the [[clinical ]] picture of an animal [[phobia]], which is one of the most frequent among the psychoneurotic diseases of this age and perhaps the earliest [[form ]] of such an ailment. The phobia is as a rule in [[regard ]] to animals for which the child has until then shown the liveliest interest rnd has [[nothing ]] to do with the individual animal. In cities the [[choice ]] of animals which can become the [[object ]] of phobia is not great. They are horses, dogs, cats, more seldom birds, and strikingly often very small animals like bugs and butterflies. Sometimes animals which are known to the child only from picture books and fairy stories become [[objects ]] of the ;enseless and inordinate [[anxiety ]] which is manifested with these phobias; it is seldom possible to learn the manner in which mch an unusual choice of anxiety has been brought [[about]]. I an indebted to Dr. Karl [[Abraham ]] for the report of a [[case ]] in "which the child itself explained its fear of wasps by saying that the colour and the stripes of the [[body ]] of the wasp had nade it [[think ]] of the tiger of which, from all that it had heard, it might well be afraid.<BR>The animal phobias have not yet been made the object of careful analytical investigation, although they very much merit it. The difficulties of analyzing [[children ]] of so tender an age have probably been the motive of such neglect. It cannot therefore be asserted that the general [[meaning ]] of these illnesses is known, and I myself do not think that it would turn out to be the same in all cases. But a [[number ]] of such phobias directed against larger animals have proved accessible to [[analysis ]] and have thus betrayed their [[secret ]] to the investigator. In every case it was the same: the fear at bottom was of the [[father]], if the children examined were boys, and was merely [[displaced ]] upon the animal.<ref>{{T&T}} Ch. 4</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>In [[infantile ]] zoophobias, the ego must intervene against a [[libidinal ]] object-[[cathexis ]] of the id (that of the positive or [[negative ]] redip us [[complex]], namely), because of the [[recognition ]] that to yield to it would entail the [[danger ]] of [[castration ]] .... The [[castration anxiety ]] is given [[another ]] object and a distorted expression-namely, that of [[being ]] bitten by a horse (or eaten by a wolf) instead of being [[castrated ]] by the father .... The anxiety in zoophobia is thus an [[affective ]] reaction of the ego to danger, the danger which is in this case warned against being that of castration.<ref>{{PoA}} Ch. 7</ref></blockquote>