ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the discussion of supplemented by reference to a selection of specific questions relating to the nature and treatment of excessive anxiety, including the role of exposure, and the nature of agoraphobia. Edna B. Foa and Michael J. Kozak’s identification of some similarities between post-traumatic stress and phobias is plausible, and the ensuing analysis is useful. Foa and Kozak’s distinction provides a useful jumping-off point for alternative approaches to the treatment of agoraphobia. It is an easy step from their distinction to the introduction of what has been called the “safety perspective” into the study of agoraphobia. Foa and Kozak have made a most promising start in the worthy enterprise of connecting Lang’s bio-informational theory of fear structures to the concept of emotional processing. Exposure methods are a powerful means of reducing fears, but do not constitute a necessary condition for change.
