Facing Fears and Phobias The power of Desensitization and Relaxation The Hypothesis In 1958, Joseph Wolpe published his research perfecting the treatment of phobias stemming from conditioning. His method, known as “systematic desensitization, works by undoing the classically conditioned fear response as a reaction to a stimulus that is not truly dangerous. He hypothesized that a phobia could be unlearned by associating something that is inhibitory to the anxiety, such as relaxation, with the stimulus producing the fear response, then the anxiety will be weakened. His method has three steps.
Relaxation Training In order to associate relaxation with the phobia instead of fear, one has to be able to instantly enter a state of relaxation no matter what situation they are in. Up to 5 or 6 sessions can be spent perfecting the technique of
completely relaxing every part of the body.
Construction of Anxiety Hierarchy Then, an ordered list of anxiety inducing situations must be created by the patient. The first items are mildly panic inducing, increasing to the most terrifying situations.
Desensitization The final step is the desensitization therapy. In these sessions, the therapist will talk the patient through their hierarchy of phobia situations. Starting with the most mild one, the doctor will read out the phobia related situation while the patient remains in a deep state of relaxation. As the doctor continues through the hierarchy, the patient will stop them at the slightest increase in their stress until they are fully relaxed once again.
Success and Implications In his studies, Wolpe proved the effectiveness
of his treatments with up to a 91% success rate. Even with this strong figure backing him, there are still critics of his work. Some claim that because the treatment does not address the underlying issues causing the fear, such as a childhood trauma, then it can not be truly effective, and is just a temporary solution. This opposition has been refuted in several different ways. First, Wolpe followed up with many of his patients up to four years after the treatment, and found no cases of relapse of the phobia. Additionally, Paul ran a study that compared the effectiveness of Wolpe’s desensitization therapy to insight therapy (discussing the cause of the anxiety), and found the Wolpe’s method was much more effective. Wolpe’s findings are still used every day in modern therapy.