Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T03:34:13.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Classification of Phobic Disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Isaac M. Marks
Isaac M. Marks*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, and The Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

History of term ‘phobia’

The term ‘phobia’ derives from the Greek word ‘phobos’ meaning panic-fear and terror, and from the deity of the same name who provoked fear and panic in one's enemies. Although morbid fears have been described by doctors from Hippocrates onwards, the word phobia has only been used on its own since the beginning of the 19th century, and it gradually gained acceptance during that century in the same sense as today, viz. an intense fear which is out of proportion to the apparent stimulus. Such fear cannot be explained or reasoned away and leads to avoidance of the feared situation where possible.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 116 , Issue 533 , April 1970 , pp. 377 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1970 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agras, W. S., Sylvester, D., and Oliveau, D. (1969). ‘The epidemiology of common fears and phobias.’ Comprehensive Psychiat., 10, 151–6.Google Scholar
Errera, P., and Coleman, J. V. (1963). ‘A long-term follow-up study of neurotic phobic patients in a psychiatric clinic.’ J. nerv., ment. Dis., 136, 267–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frazier, S. H., and Carr, A. C. (1967). ‘Phobic reaction.’ In: Freedman, A. M. and Kaplan, H. I. (Eds). Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1895). Rev. neurol. 3. (Transl. in Collected Papers. Vol. I,. p. 128. London: International Psychoanalytic Press, 1924.)Google Scholar
Gelder, M. G., and Marks, I. M. (1966). ‘Severe agoraphobia: A controlled prospective trial of behaviour therapy.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 112, 309–19.Google Scholar
Gelder, M. G., and Marks, I. M. (1968). ‘Desensitization and phobias: a cross over study.’ Brit.J. Psychiat., 114, 323–8.Google Scholar
Gelder, M. G., Marks, I. M. and Wolff, H. H. (1967). ‘Desensitization and psychotherapy in the treatment of phobic states: a controlled enquiry.’ Brit., J. Psychiat., 113, 53–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, E. H. (1965). Triennial Statistical Report, 1961-3. Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals.Google Scholar
Kelly, D. H. W. (1966). ‘Measurement of anxiety by forearm blood flow.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 112, 789–98.Google ScholarPubMed
Kelly, D. H. W. and Martin, I. (1969). Autonomic reactivity, eyelid conditioning, and their relationship to neuroticism and extraversion. Behav. Res. Ther. 7, 233–44.Google Scholar
Lader, M. H. (1966). ‘Predictive value of automatic measures in patients with phobic states.’ D.P.M. Dissertation, University of London.Google Scholar
Lader, M. H. and Wing, L. (1966). Physiological Measures Sedative Drugs and Morbid Anxiety. Maudsley Monograph No. 14. Oxford University Press, London.Google Scholar
Lader, M. H., Wing, L., Gelder, M. G., and Marks, I. M. (1967). ‘Palmar skin-conductance measures as predictors of response to desensitisation.’ J. psychosom. Res., II, 283–90.Google Scholar
Lang, P. J. (1966). Fear reduction and fear behaviour. ‘Problems in treating a construct.’ In 3rd Conference on Research in Psychotherapy, Chicago, Illinois June, 1966.Google Scholar
MacFarlane, J. W., Allen, L., and Honzik, M. P. (1954). A developmental study of the behaviour problems of normal children between 21 months and 14years. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M. (1967). ‘Components and correlates of psychiatric questionnaires.’ Brit, J. med. Psychol., 40, 261–72.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M. (1969). Fears and Phobias, Heinemann Medical Books, London.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M. and Gelder, M. G. (1965). ‘A controlled retrospective study of behaviour therapy in phobic patients.’ Brit. j. Psychiat., iii, 571–3.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M. and Gelder, M. G. (1966). ‘Different onset ages in varieties of phobia.’ Amer. J. Psychiat., 123, 218–21.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M., Gelder, M. G. and Herst, E. (1970). ‘A survey of agoraphobics in Britain.’ Soc. Psychiat., 5, 16–24.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M., Gelder, M. G., Herst, E., Birley, J. L. T., and Gelder, M. G. (1966). ‘Modified leucotomy in severe agoraphobia: a controlled serial inquiry.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 112, 757–69.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M., Gelder, M. G., Herst, E., Birley, J. L. T., and Gelder, M. G. Crowe, M., Drewe, E., Young, J., and Dewhurst, W. G. (1969). ‘Obsessive neurosis in identical twins.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 115, 991–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, I., Marks, I. M., and Gelder, M. G. (1969). ‘Conditioned eyelid responses in phobic patients.’ Behav. Res. Ther., 7, 115–24.Google Scholar
Maudsley, H. (1879). Pathology of Mind pp. 319, 431, London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Maudsley, H. (1895). Pathology of Mind, p. 228. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Roth, M., Garside, R. S., and Gurney, C. (1965). ‘Clinical statistical enquiries into the classification of anxiety states and depressive disorders.’ In: Proceedings of Leeds Symposium on Behavioural Disorders. May and Baker.Google Scholar
Rutter, M., Tizard, J., and Whitmore, K. (1968). Chapter 12 in Education, Health and Behaviour. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Snaith, R. P. (1968). ‘A clinical investigation of phobias.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 114, 673–98.Google ScholarPubMed
Westphal, C. (1871). Archiv f. Psychiatrie, 3, 138.Google Scholar
Westphal, C. (1878). ‘Zwangsvorstellungen.’ Arch. Psychiat. Nervenkr., 8, 734–50.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.