The following article is quite long and looks at how fears and phobias occur; how hypnosis can help in treating them; and includes a case study.

1) How do they develop in the first instance?
2) What causes phobias to occur?

• Early childhood trauma
• Physiological disorders
• Genetics
• Social conditioning
• Inappropriate learning

• Systematic desensitisation
• Implosion therapy
• Aversion therapy

How do they develop in the first instance?

In order to consider the above question we first need to know what a phobia or fear is:
Fear – to feel anxiety about.

Phobia – an abnormal or morbid fear or aversion.
(Oxford English Dictionary 1996)

In effect a phobia is an excessive fear of something that does not merit such an extreme reaction. Phobias are also usually accompanied by panic or anxiety attacks.

What causes phobias to occur?

There are five main areas that have been investigated and of these areas the genetic option is seen to be unlikely, and the social option could be included with the inappropriate learning as described by the behaviourists. All five areas are listed in the following pages along with the reasoning that prevailed at the time.