ABSTRACT

APART from enuresis, the only other disorder which has been subjected to systematic consideration is phobia. The theory of phobias, described in Chapter 5 above, is an expansion of earlier theories which were designed to account for children's phobias, and it can be applied with equal pertinence to the disorder in children. The essence of the theory is that stimuli which make an impact on the child when a fear reaction is evoked, acquire the ability to evoke fear on subsequent occasions. A phobia is a persistent, unadaptive and exaggerated fear reaction which is produced by conditioned stimuli.