Object Relations In Agoraphobia.

The purpose of the study was to test clinical assumptions about symptomatic, psychohistorical, and pathological severity differences between agoraphobics and simple phobics using objective measures, and to investigate hypothesized contrasts in object relations disturbance, using projective data. The main hypothesis was that agoraphobia is a disorder distinct from other phobias, with pathology both more severe and more closely related to problems with self-other differentiation than in simple phobia. The investigative design was biphasic. In Sample I, self-report data from the two phobic groups were compared; Sample II was a replication study of the Sample I hypotheses. Sample II also included a study of two coded Rorschach scales which measured maturity of self-other concepts and borderline defensive style. In Sample I, agoraphobics reported more general anxiety, phobic anxiety, depresssion, and spontaneous panic than simple phobics; illness onset occurred later and was more often related to non-phobic traumata than in simple phobics. Agoraphobics scored higher on two measures of pathological severity. Sample II self-report results replicated those in Sample I. Sample II projective scale results were not significant however; hypotheses predicting poorer agoraphobic object relations were not upheld. Other comparisons revealed that agoraphobics made more self-referent and tester-directed remarks during the test, labeled TALK. Theoretical implications were discussed. The replication of objective results suggests generalizability of observed differences between agoraphobia and simple phobia. It is proposed that the absence of differences on the Rorschach scales might indicate a type of borderline personality based on ego weakness, rather than on object relations. The agoraphobic's TALK response style was related to difficulties with anxiety management. The agoraphobic's efforts to engage the tester to relieve tension seem comparable to their characteristic use of companions to allay fear, and may indicate an ego structure deficit which engenders reliance on an external regulator of anxiety. Methodology which could further define dynamic causes of agoraphobia is offered.PhDClinical psychologyPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127630/2/8304570.pd