Bamboo Phobia In An Eighteen-Month-Old Boy

Abstract

We have presented a developmental history and an account of the treatment of an eighteen-month-old boy who had a bamboo phobia. Conceptual problems concerning drive organization, the expression of drive derivatives, and object relations have been explored. The correlation of these with Mahler's separation-individuation theory has been considered. Analysis of the bamboo phobia revealed two castration themes. One related to projections onto the father, and another onto the mother and sister. Our case illustration highlights the important role of object-relations development in determining the level of psychosexual organization. It also demonstrates the difficulty in correlating level of psychosexual development with capacity for symptom formation. The importance of sexual and aggressive impulses in separation-individuation is emphasized. The bamboo phobia is seen as a symptom formed to deal with psychosexual conflicts that played a part in the rapprochement crisis. Tth role of fantasies and internal representations of objects, as well as the parents' actual behavior, is stressed--again, in relation to the influence of the drives.

Fear, phobia, and panic

“…But our ordinary timetable is confounded by such clinical findings as the well-documented case of a phobia in an 18-monthold (Renik et al, 1978). This toddler refused suddenly to play in his back yard, explaining he was afraid of "dangerous bamboo."…”