Attachment and exploration in the pathogenesis of phobias

Abstract

On the basis of "man as scientist" metaphor, this paper analyses from an epistemological point of view the cognitive implications in the origin of phobias. The inhibition of exploratory activity, that it is constructed as a danger for the individual, provokes a reduction in the development of the cognitive system and in the contact with the external world. All these are characteristic symptoms of the phobic disorders.