The Use of an Anxiety-Producing Interview and Its Meaning to the Subject

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Abstract
Our theoretical concepts of anxiety and their possible applications to the study of psychosomatic problems have been reported previously.1In a preliminary sketch of an experimental design, we indicated our purpose to evoke or augment free-floating anxiety in human subjects who were anxietyprone to some degree, in order to determine the level, trend, and change in anxiety and simultaneous changes in several other psychological and somatic variables. In other words, we wanted to alter the emotional equilibrium in order to evoke and measure concomitant changes in other somatic and psychological functions. This communication presents the methods used to stimulate anxiety through verbal and nonverbal communications in transactions between subject and psychiatrist in a particular setting, and to demonstrate the wide variety of possible meanings to the subject and the complicated effects that result from such a stimulation. It was planned to produce graded increments in the level of anxiety

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