The best method of curing phobias

During the recent 50 years systematic desensibilization has been the best way to cure phobias.

Dr. Joseph Volpe is the author of this method. During the Second World War J. Volpe was the officer of South African army medical service. He served in a psychiatric military hospital, in which certain patients suffered from so-called "military neurosis", today known as posttraumatic stressful disorder.

Dr. Volpe and his colleagues tried to use medicine therapy to help patients to cope with their hurting reminiscences of battles but the results were unsatisfactory. It is considered that these misgivings inspired Volpe to look for some new methods of curing anxious disorder.

During the postwar years Volpe studied the model of anxious disorder on cats. Neurosis was formed the following way. The investigated animal was undergone to electric (the floor in the cage was conducting), light and sound disturbance till the poor cat had a steady panic reaction to even reaching the cage. After the phobia had been formed, it was possible to study the effectiveness of different curing methods. It was found out that the most reliable way to get rid of phobias was to stimulate fears gradually and systematically during feeding the animals.

First the cat with a phobia was fed in the room with that 'terrifying' cage placed at certain distance. Then the food was put a little bit closer to the cage then closer and then inside the cage: Finally, the animal 'restudied' and could fell absolutely calm in the cage which used to evoke panic some time ago.

So, Volpe proved that 'if in the presence of worrying stimuli a reaction suppressing anxiety can take place, than it will reduce the connection between these stimuli and the reaction of anxiety' (Volpe, 1962). In other words, a fear can be removed if it is changed to an opposite feeling. In psychophysiology this method is known as 'principle of reciprocal suppressing'. This discovery led to the method of systematic desensibilization.

In the experiments on animals they used food to remove anxiety. But for humans it does not work (except babies). After several investigations Dr. Volpe came to a conclusion that the best way to form an opposite to stress feeling for adults was neuromuscular relaxation by Jacobson.

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