A patient describes feeling an unreasonable, irrational fear of snakes. His fear is so persistent that he can no longer comfortably look at even pictures of snakes and has made an effort to identify all the places he might encounter a snake and avoids them. What is the best description of this patient's condition?

A) A snake phobia
B) A hypochondriac
C) An obsession with snakes
D) A delusion that snakes are harmful stemming from an early traumatic incident involving snakes

This is an example of a phobia. A phobia is a strong, persistent, irrational fear of an object or situation; the person feels driven to avoid it. The situation in the question is not an example of hypochondria, an obsession, or a delusion. A hypochondriac is a person who is morbidly worried about his/her own health and/or feels sick with no actual basis for that assumption. An obsession is an unwanted, persistent thought or impulse in which logic will not purge him/her from his/her consciousness and is intrusive and senseless. A delusion is a firm, fixed, false belief that is irrational and that a person clings to despite objective evidence to the contrary. Instead, the situation in the question is an example of a phobia. A phobia is a strong, persistent, irrational fear of an object or situation; the person feels driven to avoid it.