The British Journal of Psychiatry 129: 372-377 (1976)
© 1976 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Imaginal flooding and exposure to real phobic situations: changes during treatment
DW Johnston, M Lancashire, AM Mathews, M Munby, PM Shaw and MG Gelder
This paper reports the results of measures taken during treatment in the
study of imaginal flooding and exposure to real phobic situations
previously described by Mathews, Johnston, Lancashire, Munby, Shaw and
Gelder (1976). On weekly measures of change of similar reduction in phobic
behaviour in all treatments was found, confirming the previous findings.
Differences in therapist effectiveness were also confirmed. On measures of
the immediate effects of treatment, exposure to the phobic situation had
consistent positive effects, imaginal flooding had little or no detectable
effect. It is proposed that the treatments studied differ in their
immediate effects on phobic behaviour but also have the common effect of
facilitating counterphobic behaviour outside the treatment situation, and
that this is the main agent of therapeutic change.