Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:03:21.746Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Provoked Anxiety as a Treatment of Exhibitionism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Ivor H. Jones
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne Department of Psychiatry, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne
Dorothy Z. Frei
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne Department of Psychiatry, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne

Summary

A treatment for male genital exposure (exhibitionism) has been given successfully to 15 persons who have previously been resistant to change. The procedure involves the subject undressing before a mixed sex audience, followed by video-taping and subsequent replay to the patient. During the period of nakedness the subject describes in detail the events, his expectations and attitudes, and those attributed to his victim during exposure.

The success of the treatment appears to depend on the profound anxiety induced. During the phase of greatly increased anxiety, cognitive changes previously resisted seem to be made possible.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1977 

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

Evans, D. R. (1968) Masturbatory fantasy and sexual deviation. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 6, 1719.Google Scholar
Hackett, T. P. (1971) The psychotherapy of exhibitionists in a court clinic setting. Seminars in Psychiatry, 3, 297306.Google Scholar
Mohr, J. W., Turner, R. E. & Jerry, M. B. (1964) Pedophilia and Exhibitionism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGuire, R. J., Carlisle, J. M. & Young, B. G. (1965) Sexual deviations as conditioned behaviour: a hypothesis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2, 185–90.Google Scholar
Reitz, W. E. & Keil, W. E. (1971) Behavioural treatment of an exhibitionist. Journal of Behavioural Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 2, 67–9.Google Scholar
Rooth, F. G. (1971) Indecent exposure and exhibitionism. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 6, 521–33.Google Scholar
Serber, M. (1970) Shame aversion therapy. Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 1, 213–15.Google Scholar
Stephenson, J. & Jones, I. H. (1972) Behaviour therapy technique for exhibitionism. Archives of General Psychiatry, 27, 839–41.Google Scholar
Wickler, W. (1967) Socio-sexual signals and their intra-specific imitation among primates. In Primate Ethology (ed. Morris, D.). London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.Google Scholar
Wickramasekera, I. (1972) A technique for controlling a certain type of sexual exhibitionism. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 9, 207–10.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.