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A Phobic Extension of the Paranoid Reaction

LIONEL OVESEY, M.D.

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1962;7(2):82-92.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

The fear of success in various areas of behavior, both sexual and nonsexual, was attributed by Freud¹ to the guilt associated with the Oedipus complex. More recently, Schuster² reviewed the Freudian thesis and reached the same conclusion. Success in the patients he described, all of whom were men, unconsciously implied retaliation and punishment by the father. Hence, it was the ever-present threat of castration that forced these patients to abandon their aspirations. In this paper, I have singled out for discussion the fear of vocational success, an especially common phobic syndrome in our society. This particular form of the "success neurosis," where the patient is unable to tolerate vocational achievement, is often referred to by psychiatrists as the "success phobia." It occurs in patients of both sexes, but is seen with far greater frequency in men because they are more subject to the competitive pressures . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
NEW YORK

From the Psychoanalytic Clinic for Training and Research, Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.

Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication June 3, 1961.

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