PSYCHOTHERAPY OF PHOBIAS AND OMANIAS
"PSYCHOTHERAPY OF PHOBIAS AND OBSESSIONS" is dedicated to the psychotherapy of obsessions, the most famous of which are phobias and manias, and together with them various superstitions and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In practice, a large part of them to some extent exist latently as a common hidden fear or as a hidden attraction. They become a problem for some reason, causing and unlocking their pathological growth and acquisition of characteristics that become dangerous both for the mental health of the individual and for others. In this sense, they have a great social significance, because these mental sufferings affect a large part of the Bulgarian population. In addition, some of them also have tendencies to expand their scope.
At the same time, there is a lack of methodical instructions and tools for the prevention and therapy of obsessions, in particular phobias and manias, which can be used successfully in practice. The obsessions themselves are extremely diverse and have their own specific appearance, characteristic causes, form of manifestation and dynamics for each individual patient.
It follows from this that it is necessary to offer in a sufficiently accessible form a relatively large register of possible effective psychotherapeutic countermeasures, which can be used by a wider circle of psychologists and psychotherapists, as well as being able to help in the orientation of patients' relatives , and to themselves, if this is possible and appropriate.
In the book, which is essentially a practical guide for working with patients, questions about the nature and patterns of each of the included obsessions are discussed; the characteristic features of their course are considered; the factors and reasons that determine their appearance and development as a mental problem; possible bad consequences are described; the best ways of diagnosis are presented (including for differential diagnosis, where necessary) and, in our opinion, the most effective possible psychotherapy methods for the Bulgarian conditions. Psychotherapeutic methods themselves are from different directions and schools of psychotherapy — psychoanalytic direction, behaviorist direction, Jungian school, etc.
The book "PSYCHOTHERAPY OF PHOBIAS AND OMANIAS" indicates the most effective varieties of psychotherapeutic practice for the therapy of a given obsession - group therapy, family psychotherapy, cotheration, suggestive methods, aversive methods, etc. special attention is paid to those methods, in relation to which in general there is accumulated psychotherapeutic experience and it has been proven that the treatment results are good.
CONTENTS
Introduction… 5
I. General presentation and clarifications... 9
II. Superstitions… 18
III. Sociophobia... 26
IV. Specific phobias… 35
V. Phobias and hypochondria... 43
VI. Phobias with panic attacks... 53
VII. Monomania… 62
VIII. Specific obsessions… 70
IX. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder… 79
Appendix 1. List of superstitions… 89
Appendix 2. Liebowitz Scale… 94
Appendix 3. List of phobias...96
Appendix 4. List of obsessions… 104
Appendix 5. Screening Questions for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder… 107
Literature... 108
