A psychoanalytic reinterpretation of the effectiveness of systematic desensitization: Experimental data bearing on the role of merging fantasies.

Abstract

Ten women with insect phobias were subjected to a variant of systematic desensitization in which a procedure aimed at stimulating a fantasy of "merging with mother " was substituted for muscle relaxation. The procedure, which had been used effectively in earlier experiments, consisted of the tachistoscopic subliminal exposure of the verbal stimulus MOMMY AND i ARE ONE during the visualization part of desensitization, whenever the subject's anxiety rose above a specified level. A control group of 10 other women with insect phobias underwent the same procedure except for them the subliminally exposed message was the neutral stimulus PEOPLE WALKING. On measures of both phobic behavior and anxiety, the experimental group manifested significantly more improvement than the controls. This was seen as lending support to the proposition that (part of) the effectiveness of systematic desensitization resides in its activating unconscious merging fantasies. This is the first in a series of studies in which an attempt is being made to explore from a psychoanalytic persepotive some of the underlying psychological processes that may be operative in systematic desensitization. At the very start we would like to make the spirit of our inquiry clear. The elucidation of psychological variables that may be crucial in desensitization but which have been ignored by behaviorists is not intended as a derogation of that technique. The effectiveness of any technique should be judged in its own right, not "deduced " from the psychological processes that are believed to underly it. However, an understanding of these processes can be valuable not only in terms of their furthering theoretical knowledge about the conditions under which behavioral change takes place, which is our interest, but also for the practitioners of the technique as an aid to increasing its efficiency and effectiveness. Systemic desensitization is the most widely used of the behaviorist techniques. It consists of the induction of deep muscle relaxation followed by the visualization of scenes involving a phobic situation graded for their fear-arousing