• ARTICLES

Return to the market place: Structural change in personal construction on recovery from the experuence of agoraphobia.

Hopkins, N. J.

Keywords:
Agoraphobia, core structure, threat, attachment, narrative disruption.

Abstract:
A group of women, who avoided travel away from their home, agreed to participate in a programme of therapy and assessment that extended over a period of one year. On recovery, they demonstrated a tightening of personal construction and a greater sense of closeness to others and a more positive view of others and themselves. A non-agoraphobic group of volunteer participants, who were otherwise equally depressed and displaying a similar profile of complaints, displayed contrasting changes. On recovery their personal construction loosened and their judgemental view of themselves and others did not change significantly on the measures used, save for their perceiving an increase in their own capacity to care for others. The agoraphobic participants placed greater emphasis upon a need to demonstrate caring and unselfish behaviours than did the non-agoraphobic participants. The results appeared to be consistent with the notion that a major disruption of core structure could be causally linked to the mobilisation of a set of protective responses that might underlie agoraphobic avoidance.