• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 2024

This study is an instrumental case study based on a theoretical proposition on animal phobia as a single case, Six categories were derived for the purpose of psychological analysis of the father of a female research participant suffering from the earthworm phobia. They are 'a fearful existence', 'problems with the woman who is always by her father's side', 'secret adultery and shock', 'fear of punishment', 'symbol for earthworm and fear displacement', and 'earthworm phobia'. Anxiety about punishment from a fearful father was the cause of the phobia. For the study participant, the earthworm phobia was the displacement of her father's fear of earthworm, and the earthworm phobia was interpreted as a substitute for her father. In other words, earthworm phobia should be understood as an escape and defense process as it replaces the re-emergence of long-repressed fearful feeling toward her father, and its symbolism can be seen as a metaphorical transformation of the pathological family atmosphere.