ABSTRACT
Panic disorder (PD) is a poorly understood yet serious clinical condition that is characterized by the occurrence of unpredictable panic attacks (APA, 1980). Those who feel that a scientific approach to the dynamics of panic is worthwhile should not take this element of unpredictability too literally, however. Doing so would imply that there are no prior events to which the attacks are functionally related, and that is tantamount to saying that the attacks defy scientific understanding.
