psychology

Arachnophobia - psychological therapies

Arachnophobia and interpretation

If the arachnophobic in itself fears the spider, the fear can easily be turned into a real obsession when the animal is emphasized, and the phobia amplified immeasurably by the media and by popular beliefs and legends that, for them, have no foundation any.

In symbolism, the spider is defined as an unpredictable, bizarre, ambivalent creature in which both good and evil reign in the same beast.

In all likelihood, arachnophobia is exaggerated to excess from some cultures: according to what emerges from an ancient belief - still considered - the soul can enter and exit the mouth during sleep under the spider's robe.

In art, some paintings depict giant spiders with a woman's face: we have seen above that the figure of the spider is somehow related to life (act of creation). In this regard, the spider woman symbolizes dual opposite meanings: the human and the beast, beauty and monstrosity, the real and the imaginary.

For other authors, arachnophobia expresses the allegory of alienating oneself from the world; for others, the fear of spiders is a simple attempt to inadvertently remove certain behaviors - unconsciously deemed erroneous - of one's ego.

Psychological therapies

As we have seen, arachnophobia has a huge number of victims. However, like all phobias and psychological illnesses, therapy is possible. Given that for many authors the fear of spiders is categorized as a "simple phobia" (classification certainly carried out by non-arachnophobic people), there are no targeted, recognized and legitimate pharmacological treatments.

Common is the so-called in vivo exposure, behavioral therapy consisting in the close contact of the arachnophobic to the spider: the treatment, at first purely psychological and subsequently carried out also on a practical level, must be carried out step by step, in order to drag the patient to the limit of obsession, touching with his hands the arachnid that, mockingly, stares at the victim.

Generally, the therapy starts by subjecting the arachnophobic to specific questions about its fear, in order to extrapolate the reasons that have induced it: more often than not, the patient is not able to give a precise and sure explanation to his arachnophobia.

The following treatment phase consists of presenting photographs of spiders with arachnophobic; the sessions continue showing true spiders, which separate them from the subject thanks to a glass. The last phase, the highest level of "danger" for arachnophobic, as well as the most feared, consists in directly touching the spiders.

Generally, the treatment gives good results for a short period of time, therefore "recall" therapies are recommended in order to avoid further relapses.

Other authors seem to prefer other methods called "shocks", consisting of the sudden exposure of the spider to the arachnophobic victim.

Reflections

Undoubtedly an irrational paradox, arachnophobia: consciousness and intellect are no longer able to manage the phobic object. The problem in itself is not represented by the fear of spiders: the spider, as already explained several times, is only a stratagem, a simple loophole towards which to pour anxiety and unconscious anxiety. If the spider were a box full of fears, worries and anxieties, the arachnophobic would fear the box anyway: the problem is that the wrapper, in itself, does not create fear, it does not trigger damage, but it is the content that generates obsession. The box is appearance: we must not stop at appearances, we must dig deeper, trying to find the motif around which everything spins.

Some experts on the subject are convinced that arachnophobia sinks deep roots in childhood, the "tender age", a period of life in which mental strength is not yet consolidated and stable. Fears seen with the eyes of a child are magnified and emphasized: the inevitable consequence is the absolute inability to master it, generating a sense of permanent and unmanageable anxiety. It is precisely at this moment that an apparently defensive mechanism, which consists in bringing the responsibility of anxiety down to the spider, falls into the head of the small arachnophobic.

If psychological therapies are not used, arachnophobia, inexplicably, remains a nightmare that accompanies the victim for life.

To think that an ancient English proverb states: If you want love and success

let a spider run alive.

I wonder if arachnophobics agree ...