A given symptom is responded to by a phobia, the phobia triggers the symptom, and the symptom, in turn, reinforces the phobia. A similar chain of events, however, can be observed in obsessive-compulsive cases in which the patient fights the ideas which haunt him.16 Thereby, however, he increases their power to disturb him, since pressure precipitates counterpressure. Again the symptom is reinforced!
