Descartes behavioral training does not free the soul from its passions. It just substitutes one passion for another: the sight of a cat triggers bravery instead of fear, the man draws out his sword instead of trembling, but the underlying narrative (why does the cat scare me so much?) remains opaque, as do the origin of the phobia and the significance that the image of the cat has acquired. What is a cat if it scares me so? What kind of being is it?

The phobia implies that, at this moment, when the cat makes me tremble, it is not simply an animal like another. It is not that the cat represents something else, or that it incarnates some kind of demon that could live elsewhere. The cat is an extra-ordinary being, for no ordinary being could have such effect on my mind. But, in Descartes' training, the story and the meaning of the phobia is buried even deeper, for it has been covered up by another layer of imaginary associations. It is a like soldiers who balance the fear of death with the passion for glory. It is one passion against another, or one passion above another. The soul remains enslaved:

Ainsi lorsque la peur représente la mort comme un mal extrême et qui ne peut être évité que par la fuite, si l'ambition d'un autre côté représente l'infamie de cette fuite comme un mal pire que la mort, ces deux passions agitent diversement la volonté, laquelle obéïssant tantôt l'une tantôt à l'autre, s'oppose continuellement à soi-même, et ainsi rend l'âme esclave et malheureuse. (Passions, §48, 720)

In the end, in the Cartesian's framework, the only way to free one's soul would be to use one's will and reason. Fight the passions to which one's soul is subjected with the soul's own weapons.

I should, by sheer strength of will, stop my legs from fleeing and, by reasoning, convince myself that the cat is not as dangerous as it seems. The doglike training is just one step, which should give me some peace, calm down the thunder of fear, so that I can use my will and my reason. Will I be able to?

Pascal's test is relevant. It stages the play of will and reason against imagination and its obscure mechanism. I have been trained against the fear of cats, and against the fear of the emptiness. I step up on the board plank, and look down, and try and reason with myself.

A Pascalian voice whispers in my ears: “It won't work.”

A Cartesian voice should answer: “The will is so free of its nature that it can never be constrained.”

I am afraid the Cartesian voice would be scarcely audible. Or it might shout at me: “Be brave, and draw out your sword!”

But this would prove that the voice expresses only my training, not my will and reason.

Descartes' training might work but it will not free my soul, and there will always be phobias against which I haven't yet been trained. I lean on the Pascalian side. I would rather fight my fears with something else than will and reason. In fact, I would simply not walk on Pascal's plank just armed with will and reason.