ABSTRACT
Beck carried his concept of `dysfunctional thinking' into his work on the anxiety disorders (Beck & Emery, 1985). While depressogenic thinking seemed so central in depression, anxiogenic thinking was clearly accompanied by other very signi®cant phenomena, including sharp and strong physiological reactions and behavioural responses based on `®ght or ¯ight'. It is natural to feel uncomfortable at the prospect of unpleasant experiences, and it seems natural to choose one of the three main `safety behaviours' ± avoidance, escape or active (positive or negative) coping. The positive coping behaviour is to advance towards the anxiety-provoking stimulus ± the only known way of overcoming anxiety in the long run. Negative, `safety-seeking' behaviours are really attempts to fool the self into thinking that one is coping. Panic patients often sit down, for example, to avoid getting the expected (but hardly possible) heart attack ± doing this, however, keeps alive the belief that they might have died, because they have failed to give themselves the chance to disprove that belief. We can see, however, that even the smallest possibility of death is such an extreme threat that it can easily be seen as rational to avoid any chance of it. Other safety behaviours described by Beck and Emery (1985) are excessive smoking, drinking and even masturbation.
