What is a phobia? Irrational fears of wounded pride Irrational fear

“If I were on the edge of an abyss and a grasshopper jumped into my face, I would rather throw myself into the abyss than endure these touches,” admitted Salvador Dali. Hitchcock shuddered at the sight of eggs, and Stephen King still falls asleep with the light on and writes novels, never stopping at pages divisible by 13. “Theories and Practices” explain how irrational fears work, what determines the “choice” of an object and how new technologies will help cope with the problem.

The term “phobia” comes from the Greek “phobos” - “fear”, “horror”, but not every fear can be called a phobia. This concept refers to a persistent, irrational and uncontrollable fear that makes a person feel bad in certain situations and try in every possible way to avoid them. Unlike ordinary fear, an emotion that helps us adapt to the world around us (it allows us to assess the situation and avoid real dangers), phobia, on the contrary, leads to maladjustment and a feeling of helplessness.

“He washed his hands at the slightest reason and dried them with a fresh towel every time. I absolutely did not tolerate handshakes. I felt a strange disdain for pearls; if there were ladies wearing pearls at dinner, he could not eat. In general, smooth round surfaces disgusted him; It took him a lot of time to get used to billiard balls...” This is how his biographer John O'Neill describes the oddities of Nikola Tesla in the book “Electric Prometheus”. Irrational fear can be completely absurd - as in the case of pearls, in other cases it is based on some kind of logic, but the individual’s reaction to the stimulus is pathological increased. It is one thing to simply be afraid of getting sick, and another thing is, because of this fear, to wipe every object with a napkin and avoid touching. With a phobia, the anxiety is so strong that a collision with an unwanted object/situation is accompanied by psychosomatic reactions - the person turns pale or blushes, he has shortness of breath, nausea, rapid heartbeat, he throws himself into cold sweat etc. Usually, the very anticipation of a phobic situation causes premature anxiety - and in severe cases, anxiety can arise several hours before actual contact with the source (in the case of aerophobia, for example, half a day before boarding a flight at the airport). This aggravates the situation, and sometimes prevents doctors from making a correct diagnosis - such a prolonged manifestation of a phobia can be mistaken for a generalized anxiety disorder.

The realization that the fear is irrational or exaggerated does not solve the problem - the owner of the phobia cannot help himself and continues to avoid the source of anxiety. And if you can isolate yourself from mice or spiders without much damage to everyday life, then, for example, ablutophobia (an abnormal fear of washing - from wet cleaning in the house to a warm bath) or anthophobia (fear of flowers) can cause great difficulties. In cases where a phobia seriously interferes with a person’s life, we can talk about a mental disorder.

Don't leave the room

By International classification Phobic disorders fall into three main categories:

Specific(isolated) - this includes phobias that are clearly limited to specific objects and situations. Popular specific phobias include, for example, fear of certain types of animals (rodents, insects, reptiles, dogs, etc.), heights, darkness, thunder, flying in an airplane, enclosed spaces, the sight of blood, or medical intervention. There are also much more atypical options: for example, people suffering from trypophobia - fear of clusters of holes - shudder at the sight of honeycombs or lotus fruits, and those with omphalophobia are afraid of both the sight of other people's navels and touching their own.

Social phobia - fear close attention on the part of other people, leading to avoidance of various social situations - from telephone calls to unfamiliar subscribers to house parties or public speaking. Serious social phobias are associated with a fear of criticism and low self-esteem - they are more likely to develop in those who were compared unfavorably by their parents as children with “good” peers, or in those who were victims of attacks and ridicule from peers as a child.

Stands out separately agoraphobia, the essence of which is easiest to describe famous quote Joseph Brodsky - “don’t leave the room, don’t make a mistake.” It is usually thought of as a fear of open spaces - as opposed to claustrophobia - but is primarily a fear of leaving the house or leaving another small comfort zone (such as a room). This diagnosis may also include a fear of crowds and public places, a fear of traveling alone, and a reluctance to be in a place that is difficult to quickly leave without attracting attention (such as a hair salon chair). Anxiety can be caused either by the fear of embarrassing yourself in public or simply by the inability to control the environment, and the fear that a panic attack will be noticed by others makes the phobia even worse. Unlike social phobia, which most often develops in adolescence, agoraphobia, as a rule, manifests itself in adults, aged 20-40 years.

How we “choose” what to fear

What happens to our body when we encounter a source of anxiety? It is believed that the amygdala, an area of the brain located inside the brain, is responsible for the feeling of fear and the instinct of self-preservation. temporal lobe(one amygdala in each hemisphere). It is also associated with the emergence and consolidation in memory of associations between the source of fear and the feeling of danger. When faced with a “dangerous” object again, the amygdala triggers the secretion of hormones that bring the body into a state of readiness - to run, fight, or, conversely, hide in the face of danger. Subjectively, this state is perceived as unpleasant: adrenaline is released, the heart beats quickly, blood pressure rises, sweat appears, but in fact, in a state of panic, nothing threatens the body.

But why is one person deathly afraid of butterflies, while another cannot stand the sight of butterflies? chewing gum? Do we choose our own fears? Although scientists have not yet come to a common explanation, there are several hypotheses about the causes of phobias.

Firstly, the emergence of irrational fears can be explained by Pavlov’s model - when a negative stimulus is combined with a neutral one, a person develops a negative reaction to the neutral stimulus. Most shining example- the experience of John Watson, the founder of the behaviorist trend in psychology. Watson was interested in children's emotions and, in particular, the formation of fear reactions. He wanted to know how a child develops fear of objects that previously seemed safe.

To do this, he launched, to put it mildly, a controversial experiment, the hero of which was a 9-month-old boy, Albert, notable for the fact that he was not at all afraid of white rats. During the study, over the course of two months, the baby was shown a tame white rat, a white rabbit, cotton wool, a Santa Claus mask with a beard, and other objects. white. Two months later, Albert was sat in the middle of the room and allowed to play with the former rat. Some time after the game began, Watson began hitting a metal plate behind the child's back with an iron hammer every time Albert touched the rat. After some time, the frightened baby began to avoid contact with the animal. A week later, the experiment was repeated - this time the plate was hit five times, simply launching the rat into the cradle, which caused the child to cry. After another five days, it turned out that Albert was afraid not only of rats, but also of white rabbits, cotton wool and Santa Claus. Thus, Watson concluded that fear reactions can be transferred from real reason to the accompanying stimulus, and the child was left with a strange phobia for the rest of his life.

In addition, fear can be acquired while observing others. Thus, for example, you can “inherit” a fear of dogs from one of your close relatives, drawing conclusions from his behavior during a walk (close relatives of people with phobias are almost three times more likely to suffer from phobias than those who do not have such relatives - but if the general tendency to anxiety is partly of genetic origin, the “selection” of a phobia itself is more likely to depend on the example of others than on heredity). And sometimes picturesque stories heard in early childhood are enough - so you shouldn’t tell your children horror stories about dangerous bacteria, aggressive animals or monsters crawling out of the dark. Phobias can also arise as a result of very vivid stressful experiences - for example, a person who once accidentally almost got hit by a train may be afraid of trains for the rest of his life.

And from the point of view of psychoanalysis, increased anxiety, including phobic disorders, are caused by a person’s collision with some forbidden desires that he does not want or cannot accept. Desire begins to be perceived as a danger, not internal, but external - since the individual turns on a kind of psychological defense, not wanting to admit that the source of fear is actually in himself. Interestingly, the founder of psychoanalysis, Freud, also had a strange phobia - he was afraid of ferns. The professor never got to the bottom of the reason for this fear.

Benzodiazepines and relaxation

One of the most effective ways treatment of phobias is considered cognitive behavioral therapy, aimed at combating conscious and unconscious negative beliefs and attitudes that lead to increased anxiety, neuroses, panic attacks and other disorders. During the appointment, the psychotherapist not only understands the causes of irrational fear, but also develops a system of exercises to combat new attacks.

In addition, psychotherapy is often combined with medication. Three groups of medications are commonly used to treat phobic disorder: beta blockers, benzodiazepines, and antidepressants—selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Beta blockers interfere with the stimulating effect of adrenaline and relieve psychosomatic symptoms. SSRIs regulate the level of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects mood and including a sense of security. And benzodiazepines have a sedative and anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) effect.

In order to cope with irrational fears, it is also useful to master relaxation techniques. In some cases, the “fear ladder” technique, based on careful and gradual contacts with the source of the phobia, also helps. For example, if you are afraid of dogs, then you should start by looking at photos and videos about dogs, then move on to observing dogs on the street from afar, and finally, start to carefully approach the animals. In any case, you should not self-medicate - it is better to consult a psychotherapist.

6 apps that relieve fears

In addition to psychotherapy and medication, technology can help cope with phobias. T&P have compiled a list of apps that aim to relieve anxiety and panic and prevent them from happening in the future.

SOAR has been working since 1982 - now they are leading experts in the field of aerophobia, using cognitive behavioral techniques in their practice. The author of the application is Tom Bunn, a pilot and licensed therapist. SOAR covers absolutely everything: from claustrophobia to behavior in extreme situations. In fact, the meaning of his work is to eliminate illiteracy. Anxiety can be overcome by knowledge about the structure of the aircraft, the mechanics of its operation, the safety system and how it prevents pilot errors, turbulence and whether it poses any threat. Other apps that may help you drink less during your flight are VALK and Take off Mode, an initiative of Japan's All Nippon Airways.

Andrew Johnson is a medical doctor who specializes in clinical hypnotherapy, a type of psychotherapy aimed at changing the patient's subconscious through hypnosis. Beat Social Phobia is an audio guide to help you cope with the anxiety caused by social phobia and manage your stress levels. You can access the app as needed, or if your daily schedule doesn’t allow time for reflection, you can also turn on reminders: the app will prompt you to take a deep breath and think about the good. Beat Social Phobia content is divided into four sections: introduction, relaxation, social anxiety surge, and awakening. These are exercises to relieve the feeling of heaviness in the body, get rid of paranoia about what others think of you, increase awareness, self-confidence, and so on.

The application helps to get rid of fears associated with the animal world; the first issue is dedicated to its most frightening representatives - spiders. According to statistics, arachnophobia affects 6% of the world's population; famous sufferers include Johann Schiller, Ronald Reagan and Johnny Depp. The mechanism of work of Phobia Free is aimed at gradual desensitization. The therapy takes place in the format of an interactive narrative, during which it goes from the pink cartoon spider Itsy to quite realistic tarantulas crawling on the work or kitchen table, that is, very close. At the end of the last session, as an exam, the application will ask you to find and photograph a live spider on your smartphone, preferably a larger and furrier one. Phobia Free is approved by the UK National Health Service.

Illustration copyright AFP Image caption 45 years ago homosexuality ceased to be considered mental illness in USA

Scientists have long given up on the idea of changing a person's sexual orientation because the consensus is that something that is not recognized as a disease cannot be treated.

Homophobia, on the contrary, is increasingly becoming the subject of attention of scientists who seek to understand its origins.

"Irrational Fears"

American psychologist George Weinberg, who coined this term in the 60s of the last century, gave it the following definition: “homophobia is the fear of being in close contact with a homosexual.”

In his 1972 book, Society and the Healthy Homosexual, Dr. Weinberg wrote: “I would never consider a patient healthy if he cannot overcome his prejudices against homosexuality.”

Illustration copyright EPA Image caption The number of studies of homophobia from the point of view of psychology, culture and religion is constantly growing

Emmanuel A. Giannini, professor of endocrinology and medical sexology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, believes that homophobia is just the tip of the iceberg. According to him, this phenomenon is associated with certain personality traits and, if accompanied by violence, can be recognized as a mental illness.

Giannini sparked professional controversy with a 2015 publication in the Journal of Sexual Medicine linking homophobia and psychoticism (a personality trait marked by a tendency to express anger and hostility).

Conservative critics called the sexologist's speculations "pro-LGBT nonsense." However, in a conversation with a BBC correspondent, Giannini defended his research, pointing out that he considers a person with homophobic tendencies to be inherently weak.

“[Weak] is not a scientific term, but my own, which I use so that I can be better understood,” says the professor.

Illustration copyright EPA Image caption In 1990, the decision to decriminalize homosexuality was made World Organization health

Homophobia scale

In his article, Giannini suggests using the so-called homophobia scale he developed, which he used to measure its level in a group of 551 Italian students. He compared the results with measurements of other psychological parameters.

In the article, Giannini suggests that a more pronounced tendency towards homophobia correlates with such character traits as psychoticism and immature defense mechanisms, but persistent attachment to parents rather indicates a low tendency towards homophobia.

We are talking here about mental problems that can be cured, says Giannini.

“Suppose you don’t like the behavior of homosexuals. But this does not mean that you will necessarily explain to everyone that you yourself are not homosexual, that you cannot stand them, that you do not agree that homosexual teachers teach your children,” says Dr. Giannini.

"We've been arguing for centuries about whether homosexuality is a disease, and now for the first time we've shown that the real disease that needs to be treated is homophobia," he continues.

Illustration copyright AFP Image caption Brazilian psychologists have asked the country's Supreme Court to reinstate a ban on so-called sexual orientation change therapies that was lifted in 2017.

Culture factor

However, social and cultural factors have powerful influences on personality formation, and in a more recent paper, Giannini and his co-authors examined how certain types of cultures, which have prominent components of hypermasculinity, misogyny and moralizing, correlate with levels of homophobia.

In a paper published in 2017, they compared the results of a survey of 1,048 students from three countries with three different religions - Italy (a predominantly Catholic country), Albania (a predominantly Muslim country) and Ukraine (a predominantly Orthodox country).

"Interestingly, religion itself did not correlate with levels of homophobia. Rather, fundamentalist beliefs in all three religions influenced levels of homophobia in a given culture," Dr. Giannini said.

Illustration copyright AFP Image caption Religious propaganda can influence society's attitude towards sexual minorities

The power of dogma

“We are intolerant of sin, but not of those who sin,” says Vakhtang Kipshidze, deputy chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church with Society and the Media.

According to him, Russian Orthodox Church cannot change his negative attitude towards homosexuality, because this dogma comes not from the church, but from God.

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"We believe that people who engage in same-sex relationships are victims of their own sinfulness and as such deserve spiritual support," he told the BBC.

However, not all figures of the Russian Orthodox Church adhere to such a soft position.

Illustration copyright AFP Image caption Orthodoxy considers homosexuality a sin, but moderate church leaders say it does not condone homophobia

“I understand the indignation of the Russian people. Holy Scripture commands that all these gay guys be stoned,” said Orthodox priest Sergiy Rybko in 2012, commenting on an attack by armed men on a gay club in Moscow.

But Vakhtang Kipshidze says in response: “There is nothing in the New Testament that could indicate the stoning of sinners of any kind.”

According to him, the church does not criminalize the sin of adultery, and equally it does not support the criminalization of same-sex relationships. However, he agrees that many believers do not understand scripture and use it to justify their violent tendencies.

The power of language

"There is no doubt that some of the language used by many church leaders in their sermons promotes negative attitudes towards members of the LGBT community," says Tiernan Brady, an Irish activist and politician who frequently speaks out in support of sexual minorities among Catholics.

Illustration copyright AFP Image caption Pope Francis is softer on LGBT people than his predecessors

He is the director of the Equal Future movement, which was founded during Pope Francis' visit to Dublin in August this year. "Homophobia is not an innate characteristic of humans. It is internalized by us from the outside," says Brady.

Attitudes towards LGBT people are changing nowadays in many countries of the world, including eastern and central Europe, India and China, but it is difficult to expect that these changes will overnight reverse centuries of hostility and slander, he continues.

“But the church is only a part of people’s lives, and homophobia is learned from such areas public life like sports, politics, culture,” the activist notes.

Culture in conservative countries can reinforce the strictest religious prohibitions, Brady says.

“The countries where we see an increase in homophobia are countries where members of the LGBT community are invisible, because in such countries it is easier to create an atmosphere of fear and mistrust,” Brady concludes.

The power of stereotypes

Patrick R. Grzanka is a professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee and editor of the Journal of Counseling Psycholog. His research indicates that homophobia is also associated with stereotypes.

They identified four categories of ideas:

People who belong to a sexual minority are born this way;
All members of the same sexual group are similar to each other;
One person can only belong to one sexual group;
If you get to know someone from one group, you will learn about the group as a whole.

It is not surprising that among American students there is a high degree of agreement with the first statement, which states that belonging to a sexual minority begins at birth. Respondents from all sexual groups agreed with this.

However, agreement with the other three statements highlighted respondents with the strongest negative attitude to sexual minorities.

Illustration copyright Reuters Image caption People with negative attitudes towards homosexuals refuse to see them as individuals with a special personality

Grzanka calls this phenomenon an "implicit preference" in people's minds, which makes it easier for them to accept certain prejudices.

He believes that education is the most reliable way to overcome these prejudices in human relationships, which can lead to a decrease in homophobia.

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"We need to run campaigns to educate and inform people, and convince people that gay people are not all alike, and sexual orientation is not something that can be changed," Grzanka says.

“There is nothing that gives rise to irrational fears of sexual minorities. There have been times in human history when homosexual behavior was not persecuted, but was even welcomed and protected by law,” he notes.

Illustration copyright Getty Images Image caption Greater openness in discussing LGBT issues leads to greater tolerance in the US

There is evidence that education can have a significant impact on public perceptions about controversial subjects.

In 1999, about two-thirds of Americans opposed same-sex marriage and only a third agreed with its legalization. This is evidenced by polls conducted by Gallop.

And just 20 years later, the opposite is true - more than two-thirds of Americans support same-sex marriage and less than a third oppose it.

Researchers point out that more than 10% of adult members of the LGBT community are in same-sex marriages, and openness in discussing this topic in society helps overcome homophobic attitudes.

It remains unknown whether homophobia can be treated as a mental disorder, but scientists believe they are getting closer to understanding its nature.

According to WHO, half of the adult population of the Earth suffers from fears that prevent normal life. Thus, 40% feel tension during every air flight, 22% - during dental treatment, and 12% develop phobias - sudden and paralyzing fears: for example, a person simply cannot board a plane or go into a doctor’s office.

Nervous tremors, a feeling of complete insecurity, and horror seize some of us in front of an airplane, in front of a closed (or open) space, alone or when necessary public speaking... These emotions - uncontrollable at first glance - poison everyday life. But they are not fatal - a phobia cannot be controlled, but you can get rid of it or significantly weaken its influence.

Alarm failure in the body

Let's imagine a situation in which a car alarm goes off. Someone opens the car and a sound is heard - loud enough to be heard, but still not deafening to the human ear. The alarm works as long as it needs to be noticed, but the owner can turn it off. A faulty alarm will become inconvenient and useless - it will go off too often, sound too loud and for a long time...

Fear works in a similar way. It also signals that something is going wrong. Natural fear draws our attention to danger. Painful fear, like a broken alarm system, is excessive, unjustified and meaningless.

“It often manifests itself in “strange” behavior at the most unexpected moment,” explains cognitive psychologist Alexey Lunkov. “A person can become “numb” during a harmless conversation or run from the room after noticing a spider on the wallpaper...”

“It is impossible to explain the strength of this fear, nor to suppress the fear in oneself,” says psychotherapist Margarita Zhamkochyan. “And uncertainty always increases panic.” A person is driven by an irresistible irrational desire to get away from a frightening situation or object and even talk about it. This panicky, unrelenting fear leading to irrational behavior is a phobia (from the Greek “phobos” - horror).

Childhood fears

A phobia in an adult is a problem that requires help, but in a child it is a danger to his development. “Children learn something every day, and painful fears deprive them of the opportunity to learn new things,” says psychiatrist and psychotherapist Elena Vrono. Phobias can appear at an early age, but more often in adolescence. If a child complains of fears, you should not shame him or laugh at him. There is no need to look with him in the closet or under the bed for the “monsters” that frighten him. “Support him, play with him,” advises Elena Vrono. “And it’s better to find out the reason for his fears with a specialist.”

How do we react: passively or actively

Fear - natural reaction the body to danger - real or imagined. In itself, it does not create a serious difficulty for us; on the contrary, it allows us to react intelligently to a dangerous situation. Thus, a professional climber behaves cautiously at high altitude, but his fears do not prevent him from moving towards his goal.

All natural fears force us to act actively, but phobias are passive: a person does not look for ways to get rid of his fear, he is simply afraid.

“At this moment, rational fear gets out of control, feelings and emotions are no longer controlled by consciousness,” adds Alexey Lunkov. - A phobia is an obsession painful condition not associated with real danger, but which occurs whenever a person is faced with a frightening situation. At the same time, his whole life is subordinated to one thing: “If only I don’t have to face this.”

Most often, phobias are associated with animals, natural elements and phenomena (depth, height, darkness, thunderstorm...), transport, blood and wounds, social situations (looks, judgments...) and being in public places. There are many phobias related to the body: fear of suffocation, falling, fear of nausea...

Phobias and gender characteristics

There are twice as many women suffering from phobias as men. Researchers studying human psychology at different stages of evolution believe that this state of affairs has developed largely due to the traditional distribution of responsibilities.

American sociologists Tacott Parsons and Robert Bales put forward a hypothesis according to which many gender differences are explained by the “instrumentality” of male behavior and the “expressiveness” of female behavior.

Hunting, cattle breeding, fishing - once the main activities of men were associated with risk and danger, but irrational fear would make them simply impossible. A woman, a keeper of the hearth and a teacher of children, on the contrary, had to be very careful and pay attention to the dangers that threatened the death of children and family.

This distribution of gender characteristics, as well as the characteristics of raising boys and girls, was preserved in most societies.

“As a result, modern girls are very susceptible to the fears of their parents and loved ones, they recognize the emotions of others more subtly, and are more easily infected by fear,” says Margarita Zhamkochyan. “In addition, modern parents are tolerant of their daughters’ fears and encourage their sons to not be afraid of danger.”

On the other hand, men’s desire to cope with difficulties on their own influences statistics: women suffering from phobias are more likely to seek help, while many men prefer to endure and do not come to the attention of specialists.

Relaxation and the “stimulus ladder”

Irrational fear causes muscle tone, which is why it is so important to be able to relax. “Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy helps those who suffer from phobias to master relaxation methods - meditation, auto-training,” says Alexey Lunkov. - Then the client, together with the psychotherapist, makes a hierarchy of situations that worry him: for example, with arachnophobia, the weakest stimulus may be the word “spider” written on paper, and the strongest stimulus may be a spider sitting on the palm. By gradually moving along the “ladder of stimuli” from the weakest to the strongest (with the help of a specialist or on your own) and using relaxation techniques when encountering something that frightens you, you can tame your fear.” Some arachnophobes, for example, at the end of therapy even decide to... kiss a large tarantula spider on the back.

Three sources of phobias

How does a person acquire a phobia? “The basis of this experience is primarily biological,” says Alexey Lunkov, “since some people are genetically predisposed to panic fears. As a rule, they are hypersensitive and hyperemotional. From a psychological point of view, this congenital feature can be enhanced or, conversely, extinguished by upbringing and events occurring in life.”

The development of a phobia is also influenced by the social factor: new realities of life, certain social situations also increase (or weaken) our susceptibility to exaggerated fears. Thus, today there are much more phobias associated with land or air transport, but we also travel and fly much more often than 20–30 years ago.

“Sometimes phobias arise as a result of severe fear, often experienced in childhood,” says Margarita Zhamkochyan. “Suddenness, for example, the barking of a dog, an instant response of fear... and a harmless animal is already perceived as a threatening monster.”

Healing by provocation

Our fears can be treated, sometimes unexpectedly quickly. What about phobias? This uncontrollable emotional overreaction occurs only in certain situations - just as an allergy becomes an immune overreaction in response to exposure to a specific allergen.

To free yourself from such dependence, you need to artificially induce a sudden fear reflex: consciously put yourself in frightening situations, getting used to them and gradually increasing the impact of provoking factors.

This technique is similar to the treatment of allergies: there is a gradual adaptation to the allergen and at the same time a decrease in sensitivity to it. For example, in order to stop being afraid of pigeons, you must first get used to the image of these birds in the photo, then accustom yourself to look at a pigeon in a cage, and then approach a flock of pigeons in a park...

The goal of psychotherapy is not liberation from a phobia, but the introduction of fear into a natural framework: it must become adequate and controllable. Often those who suffer from some kind of phobia begin to “fear the fear itself.” And “getting used to fear” exercises combined with relaxation techniques help you learn to accept it as inevitable. By ceasing to be afraid of your fear, you can begin to treat it more calmly - understand, react, overcome.

4 steps to stop your phobia

1. Don't give in to your fears. Excessive fears limit our freedom and can enslave us: “Don’t go out, don’t get close, don’t say anything about...” The more you obey them, the stronger they will become. Treat strong fear as an uninvited, illegally intruding guest and learn to understand what you want (to be free) and what the phobia wants (to enslave you).

2. Think about the reason for your fear and take action. It's always good to know where fears come from. But you shouldn’t devote all your time and energy to searching for reasons. Find the strength to confront the subject of your fear directly.

3. Learn to relax and meditate. Do exercises regularly during which you will train yourself to accept your fear. Project, for example, a frightening situation onto an imaginary movie screen - zoom in and out of the “image”. Look at yourself from the outside, not forgetting that you are in a calm and safe situation. Finish “watching” with the most routine action for you that you often do at home: start reading, wash the dishes, drink a cup of tea.

4. Don't stop trying. Excessive fears usually indicate increased emotional sensitivity. This quality is positive, and therefore you should not fight it mercilessly. Get used to situations that frighten you gradually, if possible, consulting a psychotherapist.

It is not true!

This technique is similar to a game, but the phobia is afraid of such games. A psychotherapist or friend who wants to help you let go of unconscious fear takes your point of view and tells you why you should be afraid, for example, of flying on airplanes. Try to convince him by asserting: “This is not true!” - and giving a counterargument to each of his statements. After several such conversations, your own feelings at the thought of flying will cause you a pleasant surprise: the fear suppressed by your own arguments will become much less.

"Understanding that healing is real"

Psychologies: Anxiety and phobia - are they related to each other?

Elena Vrono: IN modern world There are many diseases that humanity pays for the development of civilization, and phobias are one of them. Life is becoming more and more stressful, and anxiety, as a natural defense mechanism, warns us of danger and forces us to act - to run or fight. Anxiety is necessary for survival, but it is, as a rule, what triggers the phobia mechanism.

We must understand that healing from a phobia is real. Psychotherapeutic assistance is available, drug therapy, as well as their combination.

Here is one of the effective psychotherapeutic exercises: in a moment of panic, remember the state when you were happy, when you felt very good, pleasant, fun. Remember down to the sensations, down to the posture and try to immerse yourself in this state.

It is impossible to completely get rid of a phobia, but with the help of a specialist you can curb it, weaken its influence and achieve your own power over it - in this case, you can learn to cope with your fear and not let it prevent you from living your life to the fullest.

About it

Film "Fears and Phobias". Even the most harmless fear at first glance can develop into a phobia that will turn our entire life upside down. The British BBC film talks about the nature of our fears and how to overcome them.

“Pride makes a person vulnerable
exactly to the extent that he is obsessed with her.
It is equally easy to touch it from the outside and from the inside."
Karen Horney

We talk in detail about PRIDE AND VANITY in the section on human self-worth. There we examine the ways and mechanisms of development of pride, trying to understand why it occupies such an important place in the lives of a considerable number (if not all) of people. Here we will focus on anxiety states associated with fear of frustration of pride.

One of the reasons for such frustration is the failure that haunts a person in following the demands of his pride, which can cover all aspects of a person’s life that turn out to be important for the triumph of pride. These so-called internal instructions “DO’S and DON’Ts” turn a person into his slave, forcing him to bend over backwards to live up to his own IDEAL. More precisely - the triumph of your IDEAL SELF.

This triumph may also concern the aspect that the proud consider to be their special moral perfection, but which is still nothing more than ARTIFICIAL MORALITY AND PERVERTION OF VALUES.

“Internal regulations (“DO’S and DON’Ts”), in some ways more radical than other ways of maintaining an ideal self-image, are aimed not at real change, but at immediate and absolute perfection: Their goal is to make imperfections disappear or to make perfection seem achieved, writes Karen Horney, so many reactions of despondency, irritation or fear occur in the patient not in response to what he has discovered in himself unpleasant problem, and in response to the feeling that he is unable to get rid of her immediately“.

The frustration reactions of pride are very powerful, since the proud person invests a lot of energy in satisfying the demands of his IDEAL SELF, compulsively leading a person to an imaginary and coveted GLORY. Karen Horney emphasizes that in the frustration reactions of pride, “there is an underlying fear, but anger and even rage predominate.” We will talk about these feelings in the chapter on FEELINGS WITH ANXIETY OF WOUNDED PRIDE.

Here we will consider fears that arise as a result of anxious expectations of the frightening consequences of the frustration of a person’s pride.Each of these fears arises in connection with a “threat” to pride in one or another area of the human psyche, where this pride takes place and where a person fears losing its inspiring influence and masking the truth about himself.

First of all, a person is afraid of losing what he hides from both his consciousness and the eyes of others his much-hated GENUINE SELF. He is afraid of losing the masks and facades built by his pride, which he blindly accepts as his true essence and strives for others to believe in it. Let us consider below the most important irrational fears characteristic of a person with wounded pride.

Let me emphasize once again that these are precisely irrational fears (it would be more accurate to call them fears) characteristic of anxiety. These fears do not have a real object (which is the case with normal FEAR), they only have an exaggerated fear of losing one or another aspect of pride or revealing what a person so carefully hides from others and from himself.

FEAR OF THE COLLAPSE OF THE IDEA OF OMNIPOTENCE

This fear, I think, is the main one, since the basis of pride is precisely the feeling that a person has no obstacles to achieving the goals that his IDEAL SELF sets for a person. Moreover, the idea of omnipotence can also concern the very ways to achieve these goals. Everything happens as if by magic, without risk or special effort. This is where the influence of MAGICAL THINKING comes into play. At the same time, a person takes what is desired as reality, what needs to be changed as already changed. In his consciousness, a person has already, as it were, accomplished what he saw in his fantasies - after all, he has already seen himself as the hero of a certain IMAGE OF THE FUTURE, in which his desired goals have already been achieved.

It can be argued that almost always in a person’s subconscious there is a fear that his omnipotence is nothing more than an exciting FANTASY. Such DOUBT of a person about the foundations of his IDENTITY, of which pride becomes a part, can be experienced very painfully. Therefore, a person drives away all such thoughts from himself - and his subconscious mind accepts everything that is REPUTED from consciousness.

When reality makes its own adjustments to a person’s idea of his omnipotence, when it turns out that he cannot be like this, do this and achieve what and how he wants, then experiences associated with the collapse of illusions about himself as something break in. something special, not like everyone else. It turns out that the person is a very ordinary person - and the husk of pompousness and conceit falls off from him, and his true face becomes visible to everyone.

For many proud people, such a “blow of FATE” turns into a disaster, an insult to the whole world for its INJUSTICE. And only a few are able to use this sobering up in order to become THEMSELVES, in order to live an AUTHENTIC LIFE - the life of their AUTHENTIC SELF.

A proud person considers himself not only entitled, but also absolutely confident in his unlimited ability to control other people and everything that happens to him. On the other hand, he is confident that his INTERNAL REALITY is under his complete CONTROL. Here we can talk about the connection of the type of secondary anxiety in question with LOSS OF CONTROL ANXIETY.

“It is only with the greatest reluctance that he admits in himself some unconscious forces, that is, forces that are not subject to the control of consciousness,” writes Karen Horney, “It is torment for him to admit that there is a conflict or problem in him that he cannot resolve ( that is, cope with them) immediately... For as long as possible, he clings to the illusion that he can set laws for himself and carry them out. He hates his own helplessness in front of something inside himself just as much, if not more, than helplessness in front of external circumstances.”

Another reason for this fear, Karen Horney believes, is the feeling of general uncertainty about his rights, which a proud person often experiences: “the inner world, where he feels the right to anything, is so unrealistic that in the real world he becomes confused about his rights.” The feeling that he has no rights may be an outward expression of his suffering and the focus of his complaints, since he is insecure about the irrational demands of his pride. And these demands, as Horney notes, “are frankly fantastic, they are all imbued with the expectation of a MIRACLE; demands are a necessary and inevitable means of translating the IDEAL SELF into reality.”

FEAR OF “EXPOSURE” AND SELF-ACCOUSION

Pride, as we know, is self-deception and deception of others. Of course, this is mostly not an intentional LIE. A person simply replaces his GENUINE SELF with masks and facades of the IDEAL SELF. Everything that does not meet the requirements of pride is REPUTED. But the contents of the UNCONSCIOUS break into consciousness, not leaving a person alone. The truth about himself, no matter how you hide it, will sooner or later make him think about the discrepancy between his EXPECTATIONS from himself and the real state of affairs, about the discrepancy between his opinion of what he is and his true essence.

The truth about your true self is the collapse of the illusion of your own omnipotence. Therefore rThe Horde always, deep down, fears that its masks will be torn off, that it will not be able to maintain its facades in the proper quality. And as a result, it will become clear to everyone (including himself) that all his brilliance was just a show of dust, and his true essence will become visible to everyone.

The fear of exposure is completely normal when committing any acts that are not accepted from the point of view of the environment or conscience. The irrational fear of exposure arises when his real (from a person’s point of view) properties do not correspond to those properties that he tries to develop in himself for the sake of his IDEAL SELF.

Some proud people, argues Karen Horney, are especially susceptible to fear of exposure. In such a person “there is a constant secret fear that he is simply a fraudster”:

“Even if he has achieved success or honor through honest work, he will still believe that he achieved it by misleading others. This makes him extremely sensitive to criticism and failure, even to the mere possibility of failure or of criticism revealing his “fraud”….”

Often a proud person will try to discern flaws in himself, driven by the desire to eliminate them in time. However, being prone to excessive self-observation, such a person, as Karen Horney notes, “feels “guilty” or inferior, and as a result, his low self-esteem is further reduced.” That is, the fear of exposure pushes a person, Horney believes, to self-examination and self-accusation:

“Self-accusations of fraud and deceit (the fear that arises in him in response to self-accusations is the fear of being caught: if people knew him better, they would see what rubbish he is).

Other self-blames attack not so much the existing difficulties as the motivation to do something (for example, for insincerity of intentions, for hidden intentions).

Self-blame may be focused on external unfavorable conditions beyond the control of the individual. These external factors should not be beyond our control. Consequently, everything that goes wrong casts a shadow on him and exposes his shameful limitations.

A person may blame himself for actions or attitudes that, upon closer examination, appear harmless, legitimate, and even desirable (one who prides himself on asceticism will accuse himself of being a “glutton”; one who prides himself on humility will brand self-reliance as selfishness). The most important thing about this type of self-blame is that it often refers to a struggle against manifestations of the AUTHENTIC SELF.”

It is precisely because of this tendency to self-accusation that proud people (that is, people who neglect the interests of their GENUINE SELF) often find themselves victims of MANIPULators who play on inciting their FEELINGS OF GUILT.

Horney notes that, thanks to the mechanism of PROJECTION, the tendency to self-examination and self-blame is externalized. At the same time, it seems to the person that it is other people who are constantly trying to catch him in deception. “As a result, he is sure that everyone around him attributes bad motives to all his actions,” writes Horney, “This feeling can be so real for him that he is indignant at others for INJUSTICE.”

Horney points out the futility of self-accusation, its merely accusatory nature. A proud person who blames himself in a spirit of self-hatred, willy-nilly tends to “defend against any self-blame, hinders the development of the capacity for constructive self-criticism and thereby reduces the likelihood that we will learn something from mistakes.”

FEAR OF LACK OF DEMAND

A person’s pride is often “nourished” by the conviction that those around him cannot do without him. This demand gives him a sense of strength and influence, raising his self-esteem and mental well-being. A person becomes dependent on feeding his pride feeling of being in demand.

Hence, a person’s fears that he (as he presents himself) will be unclaimed by other people are understandable. And his pride, afraid of collapse, pushes him to more and more new tricks in order to maintain the status quo or even gain even stronger positions in his relationships with other people.

FEAR OF DEVALUATION

Pride, like healthy self-esteem, requires high appreciation of a person both from others and from his SELF-ESTEEM. Valued by others and by himself, a proud person feels on a horse. He craves praise and does everything to receive it (see VANITY AS FALSE SELF-ESTEEM).

However, somewhere in the subconscious of a proud person there is always a fear that he, so wonderful, will not be appreciated, as he believes, “as he deserves,” will be underestimated or even devalued. This can happen if the shining features of his pride turn out to be a faded fake, and through the holes in masks and facades his very unsightly true essence becomes visible.

We can talk about any character trait, any property, any external or internal “SUBSTANCE” that a person considers to be his VALUE and wants it to be highly appreciated by others. In the case of pride, we are dealing with the hypertrophy of certain traits and properties that a person’s IDEAL SELF considers his most important asset. In essence, we are talking about a mask that covers his GENUINE SELF, which he so hates. A person fears that the fall of this mask from him and the exposure of his true essence will force not only those around him to change their opinion of him in a negative direction, but he himself, having ceased to value himself, will begin to despise himself.

The process of self-devaluation can reach gigantic proportions, says Karen Horney: “Even people with genuine intellectual achievements sometimes feel that it is better to insist on their stupidity than to openly admit their aspirations, because they need to avoid the danger of being ridiculed at all costs; with quiet despair they accept their own verdict, rejecting evidence and assurances to the contrary.” A person seems to think that it is better to devalue himself, to revel in self-deprecation, to laugh at himself - than to experience the same thing from other people.

FEAR OF HATE FROM OTHERS

If a person is plunged by hurt pride into the abyss of self-contempt, then, in order to protect himself from painful and cruel self-flagellation, his self-hatred is taken outward: with the help of the defense mechanism of PROJECTION, aggressive tendencies are attributed to other people. Thus, danger seems to threaten a person from the outside. This can cause suspicion, anxiety attacks and fear of others.

FEAR OF EFFORT

Some proud people have the belief that they can surpass everyone else without making any effort. “The reason for the deep-seated fear of constant effort is that it threatens to destroy the illusion of unlimited power and authority,” notes Karen Horney. That is, the need to make efforts is something “shameful” for such people, showing both them and those around them that there is no question of omnipotence, which is the subject of their pride.

It may be characteristic of being proud, according to Horney; “deepest aversion to any effort”:

“The unconscious requirement of his pride is such that intention alone should be enough to achieve, to get a job, to become happy or to overcome difficulties. He has the right to receive all this without any expenditure of energy. Sometimes this means letting others do the real work. If this does not happen, he has a reason to be unhappy. It often happens that he gets tired of the mere prospect of “extra” work.”

The person thereby relieves himself of RESPONSIBILITY for getting out of unpleasant situations and for improving his situation. “It is others who are to blame for my troubles - they must fix everything. But what kind of correction will it be if I do everything myself?” - this is what the proud man thinks, according to Horney.

FEAR OF REJECTION

One of the internal demands of pride may be the demand to be adored by other people. A proud person may believe that others are obliged to be happy with him and always accept him with open arms, that he is “entitled” to favor from others. However, consciousness (albeit suppressed by pride) tells a person that such demands and expectations are unrealistic. This is the reason for anxious expectations of refusal.

Facing a real situation of refusal can result in outbreaks of INJUSTICE ANXIETY with the manifestation of corresponding emotions and the use of defenses characteristic of this anxiety.

FEAR OF DISAPPROVAL

If a person's SELF-ESTEEM depends on external assessments and feedback from significant (or even insignificant) others, then one should expect significant mood swings depending on this external assessment - from INSPIRED by praise (in whatever form it is carried out) to DESPERATION in case of even fair and friendly criticism. In addition, a proud person tends to react to negative feedback with contempt for the one who evaluates him negatively.

A person may fear disapproval from others of both himself and his individual properties and traits, his behavior, his actions, as well as the style and methods of their implementation. This fear is manifested by intolerance of reproaches and criticism.

FEAR OF LACK OF INTELLECTUAL POWER

Proud people generally place their intellectual abilities very highly. They believe themselves smarter and more cunning than other people. At the same time, they may consider their cunning, resourcefulness, and ability to deceive as one of their most important qualities.

However, in reality, in this area too, often not everything is as the proud man imagines. So he can consider himself capable of finding the right solution without effort and deep thought. This “overwhelming need to appear all-powerful can impair learning,” says Karen Horney. Also, as a result of such belief in one’s superiority and in the ease of carrying out intellectual processes, the ability to make correct, informed decisions is also impaired.

Proud people, as we know, tend to ignore realities and the unpleasant properties of their GENUINE SELF. This negatively affects intellectual activity in general “The general tendency to obscure personal issues can also obscure the clarity of thinking: like people who have blinded themselves to their internal conflicts, they may not pay attention to other types of contradictions, writes Horney. The work of the intellect is put at the service of ignoring the TRUTH, and, in fact, at the service of LIES.

Further, proud people, according to Horney, “are too fascinated by the glory they have to achieve to take sufficient interest in the work they do.” This applies to both the quality and intensity of intellectual work and the effort that this work requires.

AGGRESSIVENESS (in relation to oneself and other people), characteristic of people with wounded pride, can also impede critical thinking, clouding mental clarity.

In a word, a proud person has many reasons to be dissatisfied with his mind, which is often the subject of his pride. As a result, a proud person may suffer greatly from self-reproach or from severe disappointments about the ineffectiveness (whether real or simply perceived by him) of his mind.

However, belief in the superiority of reason remains one of the most important internal defenders of the proud. Hence, his desire to constantly strengthen in all possible and impossible ways his reliance on the intellect is understandable, which is one of the important PROTECTIONS AGAINST THE ANXIETY OF WOUNDED PRIDE.

FEAR OF THE NECESSITY TO GIVE UP DESIRE AND DEMANDS OF PRIDE

According to Karen Horney, it is difficult for a proud person to “recognize the limitations of time, energy, money, knowledge of one’s real desires, and the ability to give up less important ones for more important ones.” This happens because, on the one hand, such a person is confident in the unlimited possibilities of his capabilities, even to the point of believing in his omnipotence (MAGIC THINKING, in particular, as part of the MANIC DEFENSE system), on the other hand, his desires do not come from his true NEEDS, but are the result of the compulsive demands of his pride (MUST).

The consequence of this is the impossibility of ranking desires by importance: for him they are all equally important, so he cannot refuse any of them, nor believe in the impossibility of fulfilling one or another desire (or all at once). This becomes the cause of a person’s deep frustration, which is further aggravated by the fact that in the depths of his soul he realizes or feels that his omnipotence is only a fiction, self-deception and deception of others.

One important consequence of this is, in the words of Karen Horney, “a feeling of general uncertainty about one’s rights”: the inner world where the proud person feels entitled to anything is so unrealistic “that in the real world he becomes confused about his rights; the feeling that he has no rights may then be the outward expression of his suffering and may become the focus of his complaints, while he is insecure about his irrational demands.”

It is important to note that a proud person often cannot distinguish between his desires and the demands of his pride, which push him to compulsive actions that he commits as if against his WILL. These demands seem to drag a person through life.

The overarching function of the demands of pride, according to Karen Horney, is “to perpetuate the proud person’s illusions about himself and shift responsibility to external factors: he places responsibility for himself on other people, on circumstances, on fate:

“The demands of pride do not prove his superiority by achievement or success: they provide him with the necessary evidence and alibi. And even if he sees again and again that others do not accept his demands, that the law is written for him too, that he is not above ordinary troubles and failures - all this does not prove his lack of unlimited possibilities. This only proves that INJUSTICE is still happening to him. But if only he defends his demands, one day they will be fulfilled.

It's not fair that he has any problems at all. He has the right to at least have a life arranged in such a way that these problems do not bother him in any way. He demands: the world must be arranged in such a way that he does not face his conflicts and is not forced to recognize them.”

FEAR OF SHOWING “SHAMEFUL” FEELINGS

The proud man tries (more precisely, he NEEDS) to keep a good face in any game. Therefore, he should not even show that he had a failure or drama or tragedy. To do this, he must not let other people see his feelings, showing that he is worried or ashamed. After all, to show others that he feels bad means personally signing the inconsistency of his own pride. “He considers suffering a shame that must be hidden,” writes Karen Horney.

A proud person, confident in his ideal perfection and absolute rightness, can, even when his pride is struck, not show a feeling of shame, of which he is terribly ashamed. “A sense of self-righteousness blocks the path to feelings of SHAME,” writes Horney.

If a person is proud of his invulnerability, then this pride forbids him to admit his feelings of resentment. Such a proud person, according to Karen Horney, is in a dilemma: “he is absurdly vulnerable, but his pride does not allow him to be vulnerable at all. A deity can, in principle, become angry at the imperfections of mortals, but he must be great enough to rise above it and strong enough to transcend it. This internal state is largely responsible for his irritability.”

F. is an irrational fear, which can manifest itself in the form of fear of specific animate and inanimate objects, for example. fear of snakes (ophidiophobia); fear of certain group or class of people (xenophobia, fear of strangers; androphobia, fear of men); fear of impending or anticipated events (astrophobia, fear of lightning; fear of school or exams) or fear, in essence, of everything imaginable. The following are some of the most commonly encountered phobias in the clinical literature:

Name	Object of fear
Acrophobia	High places
Agoraphobia	Going out
Claustrophobia	Closed spaces
Kinophobia	Dogs
Cypridophobia	Venereal diseases
Electrophobia	Electricity, especially electric shock
Genophobia	Sex
Gynophobia	Women
Hodophobia	Trips
Hydrophobia	Water
Hypnophobia	Dream
Kakorraphiophobia	Failure
Misophobia	Dirt
Pathophobia	Disease

Thanatophobia Death

An objective assessment of any fear is usually controversial as to the extent and under what circumstances the feared object or event poses a real danger. Two non-grading criteria potential danger, differentiate phobias from rational, non-neurotic fear.

Firstly, F. have an obsessive nature. A patient with F. is often forced to get stuck on his fear to a much greater extent than is necessary under objective circumstances.

The second characteristic that differentiates anxiety from realistic fear concerns the mode of manifestation of anxiety. F. is usually accompanied by such a high level of anxiety that the patient finds himself immobilized, unable to act in an effective manner to reduce anxiety. There is no complete agreement regarding the differential diagnosis between phobic fear and generalized anxiety; this is likely to depend on the specificity of the object or event causing concern.

Causes of phobias

There is no single generally accepted explanation for the etiology of F. It is generally accepted, however, that the emergence of some phobias, unlike others, is preceded by specific events. These events are called precipitating injury or precipitating event; they may or may not be considered as a direct cause of F., depending on the theory. orientation of the psychologist making his judgment. There are three main models of F. - psychoanalytic, behavioral and cognitive.

Psychoanalytic model. Freud categorized F. as part of a set of symptomatic neuroses, which he called hysteria of fear (anxiety hysteria or Angst hysterie). This group also includes conversion hysteria. F. is an expression of repressed sexual fantasies, usually of an oedipal nature, in the fight against defense mechanisms designed to help contain these feelings.

Behavioral (social learning) models. F.'s explanations from the viewpoint. behaviorism or social theory. learning focuses on how an individual learns an inappropriate, fear-provoking response to an initially neutral or non-exciting stimulus. Three main paradigms are used: classical conditioning, operant conditioning and modeling.

F.'s etiology has been the subject of research. in one of the main experiments in behavioral psychology, which, even decades after the publication of the results, represents an important milestone in its development. John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner induced a phobia in Albert, an 11-month-old child, using the model of classical conditioning discovered by I. P. Pavlov in his famous experiments with dogs.

According to the operant conditioning paradigm, B.

F. Skinner, F. develop not only as a result of a random or even deliberate coincidence of stimuli, but also as a result of deliberate, voluntary actions in environment and the consequences of these actions (reinforcements).

The modeling (observational learning) paradigm, developed largely by Albert Bandura, assumes that skills are, at least in part, learned through the perception of anxiety or irrational fears experienced by others, especially loved ones with whom there is an empathic connection. .

Cognitive model. The cognitive-dynamic concept of F., developed by Albert Ellis, differentiates and clarifies thought processes, involved in the disorder. Ellis argues that associations with the thought “this is good” become a person's positive emotions, such as love or joy, while associations with the thought “this is bad” become negative emotions, coloring painful, angry or depressive feelings. F. is an illogical and irrational association that connects “this is bad” or “this is dangerous” with things that in reality are not such.

Other explanations. Representatives of the existential movement Rollo May and Viktor Frankl consider F. as a reflection of alienation, powerlessness and meaninglessness modern life, partly as a consequence of industrialization and depersonalization. The representative of humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow, considers neuroses, like neuroses in general, as a violation of personality growth, a collapse of people’s possibilities for realization. potential.

Some theorists pay attention to the physiologist. and genetic aspects of F. Edward O. Wilson sees in F. a trace of our genetic evolution. “In the early stages of human development,” writes Wilson, “phobias expanded the possibilities of human survival.”

Treatment of phobias. Supporters of the above theories use techniques and methods of treating F. in accordance with what they consider to be their cause. Psychoanalysts, considering F. a product of repressed content hidden under layers of psychol. defenses use free association, dream analysis and interpretation to peel back layers of defense and get to the core of the conflict. Then, through catharsis - a sudden emotionally intense release of repressed material - the patient will be able to overcome F. and recover.

Behavioral psychologists have developed an impressive array of techniques for treating F. The two most widely used paradigms are systematic desensitization and flooding.

Systematic desensitization is a form of classical conditioning in which fear-inducing stimuli are combined with inhibitory reactions, either in an imaginary (replacement desensitization) or in a real-life situation (in vivo desensitization).

Flooding is “a method of treating phobias by rapid exposure to a feared object or situation in real life, maintaining maximum tolerable fear until it begins to subside, then repeating exposures until the patient feels comfortable in the previously feared situation.” " Although this method is considered fast and effective, at least in the short term, its use is accompanied by causing in patients high level anxiety, which a number of experts consider too high - and therefore potentially dangerous.

The process of rational-emotive therapy involves the psychotherapist communicating (often in a very effective, impressive form) to the patient about distortions in his thinking. This is similar to a psychopedagogical technique, and it is really aimed at making the patient aware of how illogical thinking leads to an illogical and phobic style of behavior.

All four methods - psychoanalysis, systematic desensitization, implosive and rational-emotive therapy - are highly effective. Empirical research data. confirm this, at least in comparison with the treatment of disorders such as depression and schizophrenia.