Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-26T13:51:59.948Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Nature and Origin of Common Phobic Fears

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Svenn Torgersen*
Affiliation:
The Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities, Centre for Research in Clinical Psychology, Oslo University, P.O. Box 1039, Blindern, Oslo 3, Norway

Summary

By means of a twin study an attempt was made to throw light upon the aetiology and nosology of phobic fears. Factor analyses revealed five factors, namely separation fears, animal fears, mutilation fears, social fears and nature fears. The study demonstrated that, apart from separation fears, genetic factors play a part in the strength as well as content of phobic fears. Environmental factors, affecting the development of dependence, reserve and neurotic traits generally, seemed also to be of some importance. It was further demonstrated that phobic fears were related to emotional and social adjustment and this was true to an even greater extent for separation fears.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1979 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agras, W. S., Sylvester, D. & Olivean, D. (1969) The epidemiology of common fears and phobias. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 10, 151–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Champion, E. & Tucker, G. (1973) A note on twin studies, schizophrenia and neurological impairment. Archives of General Psychiatry, 29, 460–4.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1932) New Introductory Lectures to Psychoanalysis, 110–13. London: Hogarth Press. 1957.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, E. (1965) Psykonevroser. K⊘benhavn: Munksgaard.Google Scholar
Juel-Nilsen, N., Nielsen, A. & Hauge, N. (1958) On the diagnosis of zygosity in twins and the value of blood groups. Acta Genetica, 8, 256–73.Google Scholar
Lazare, A., Klerman, G. L. & Armor, D. J. (1966) Oral, obsessive and hysterical personality patterns. Archives of General Psychiatry, 14, 624–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marks, I. M. (1969) Fears and Phobias. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Mittler, P. (1971) The Study of Twins. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Roth, M. (1959) The phobic anxiety depersonalization syndrome. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 52, 587–95.Google Scholar
Scarr, S. (1968) Environmental bias in twin studies. In: Progress in Human Behaviour Genetics. (ed. S. G. Vandenberg). Baltimore: John Hopkins Press.Google Scholar
Slater, E. & Shields, J. (1969) Genetical aspects of anxiety. In: Studies of Anxiety (ed. M. J. Lader). British Journal of Psychiatry Special Publication, No. 3.Google Scholar
Snaith, R. P. (1968) A clinical investigation of phobias. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 673–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torgersen, S. (1974) Hereditary and environmental factors in the personality formation. A study of oral, obsessive and hysterical personality traits in monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Presented at the Conference : Temperament and Personality. Warsaw, October, 1974.Google Scholar
Young, J. P. R., Fenton, G. W. & Lader, M. J. (1971) The inheritance of neurotic traits: a twin study of the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire. British Journal of Psychiatry, 119, 393–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.