A physiological model of phobic anxiety and desensitization

The relationship between arousal and phobic anxiety is discussed with regard to recent psychophysiological studies of habituation in normal subjects and in groups of anxious and phobic patients. A physiological model of the mechanisms underlying generalized and phobic anxiety is postulated. Some criticisms of Wolpe's conception of systematic desensitization are offered and an alternative explanation consistent with the above postulate is put forward. This alternative states that the underlying mechanism of systematic desensitization is identical with that of habituation proceeding under optimal conditions (the “maximal habituation” hypothesis). The two accounts of desensitization are compared and contrasted.