Conceptualizing the Critical Elements in a Rapid Desensitization to School Anxiety: A Case Study

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Abstract
A case history is presented involving school anxiety which suggests the importance of the manner in which critical elements of a case are conceptualized. The uncovering of an earlier significant event, initially thought of as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), allowed desensitization to the patient's erroneous interpretation of the earlier event and to other attendant stimuli which may have been producing residual anxiety. A post-factum review of the case challenged the narrow UCS conceptualization and brought under consideration a broader explanation involving cognitive and dynamic elements. The rapid improvement may have resulted from a process which combined desensitization to current, anxiety-producing events with desensitization to anxiety associated with the earlier event, its attendant stimuli, and the accompanying self-defeating statements.

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