Affect phobia

The concept of affect phobia is an aspect of psychoanalytic theory. It is a cornerstone of psychoanalysis that psychodynamic conflict can be centred on a fear of feeling or affect phobia. These fears which may be conscious or unconscious are thought to underly many symptoms that people bring to therapy.

Freud hypothesized that neuroses were the result of the analysand's attempts to stave of aversive unconscious experiences.