PSYCHOTHERAPY AND ANXIETY, A SOCIOMETRIC STUDY

Abstract

Anxiety has been described at different times as the core of neurosis, as the cause of tension in back and shoulder muscles, or as a moving force that has lifted us from the stone age to the space age in the fantastically short time of fifty thousand years. For the purposes of the present study, I choose to view anxiety as the psychological parallel to physiological stress. The one does not exist without the other. Furthermore, anxiety and tension are essential for the smooth operation and development of our lives. Anxiety
and its physiological concomitant, stress, when effectively and spontaneously functioning, see us enjoying meaningful and happy lives. When the anxiety is dammed up or denied constructive outlet, neurosis or delinquency result. In an earlier report on the effectiveness of group psychotherapy, modification of sociometric status of institutionalized delinquents was assessed.1 At this time I would like to present some additional experimental data in that study with the aim of gaining further insights into the role played by anxiety.