Tony Has Thoughts About Hating His Younger Brother and Wishing

Multiple Choice

Tony has thoughts about hating his younger brother and wishing he would die. He becomes very anxious about these thoughts because he has developed the idea that if anything really happened to his brother, it would be his fault. For no explainable reason, Tony starts mentally counting by odd numbers each time he walks past his brother's room and discovers that this activity makes him less anxious. Tony's behavior can be described as

A) a phobia of going into his brother's room because he is afraid his hatred will actually hurt him.
B) a mental compulsion developed to neutralize his bad thoughts.
C) an attempt to be better in math than his brother to gain parental acceptance.
D) a compulsive ritual designed to make him like his brother more.