A Theoretical and Experimental Approach to Problems of Anxiety

Abstract

General laws of psychophysiology have not yet been satisfactorily formulated, despite decades of research by psychologists, psychiatrists, and biologists. In recent years a shift of emphasis toward a psychosomatic approach to problems of human illness has occurred. This has resulted in greater concern with research directly applied to specific illnesses in attempts to pinpoint the role of disturbed emotions in their etiology.An essential problem in psychosomatic research is the inherent difficulty in determining what factors in the personality and which of its past experiences should properly be correlated with the symptoms of an organ dysfunction. In clinical studies variables are chosen in the psychological and in the somatic systems, and, without clear understanding of their dynamic and temporal relations, they become the basis for the presumed etiological understanding of the psychosomatic disease. Such formulations, attempting to relate two discrete proc-

The home environment.

“…Some acts of support are given in anticipation of unexpressed needs, and others are given following expressed needs. Emotions function to prepare human beings to take action in their own best interest (Grinker, et al, 1956). The caregiving environment must assist in enlisting and modulating the motivational properties of emotions to help ensure optimal fit with environmental demands.…”

2 Methodological Considerations in Psychoendocrine Research

“…If in-patients, the subjects may be quite familiar with the research environment and with the investigator. They may even project therapeutic implications into the experimental setting to such a degree that the situation becomes completely deprived of the threatening significance possibly presupposed by the investigators (Grinker et al, 1956.…”

An Essay on Schizophrenia and Science

“…13 Anxiety has a special role in the adjustive processes of the human organism, both as an indicator of stress and as a precursor of further stress response. If such a model were fruitful in the study of a single affective state, it might be utilized in studies of other affects and perhaps eventual¬ ly lead to the formulation of general laws.…”