The development of psychoanalytic thought on phobia is traced from Freud's demonstration of the unconscious pathways that select the phobic topos, through the distinctions of the various phase-conditioned sources of anxiety, to the present conception of a structural intraphychic disequilibrium which the phobic symptom seeks to balance. Analytic treatment uncovers the genetic sources of the imbalance and, by fostering a new equilibrium, increases the ego's capacity to cope with conflict.Abstract Teaser