ABSTRACT
At the heart of cognitive models of anxiety lies the idea that dysfunctional anxiety results from distorted appraisals of danger inherent in certain situations. Such appraisals are often described as if they were verbal-type thoughts. However, Beck (1976) stressed that meanings that account for the strength of the emotion aroused are accessible through imagery (i.e. images and memories) as well as verbal thoughts. Recently there has been a surge of interest in the topic, and speculation that imagery may play an important role across psychological disorders. For overviews see Holmes and Hackmann (2004) and Holmes, Arntz, and Smucker (2007). In particular, it has been proposed that imagery has a stronger impact on emotion than verbal cognitions (Holmes & Mathews, 2005), and is therefore worthy of more research attention. This chapter explores imagery and memories in agoraphobia.
