Exposure Therapy - Background

Background

The use of exposure as a mode of therapy began in the 1950s during the behavior therapy movement, a time when the psychoanalytic view dominated Western psychology and behavioral therapists first emerged. South African psychologists and psychiatrists, who brought their methods to England and the Maudsley Hospital training program, first used exposure as a mode of therapy to reduce pathological fears, such as phobias and anxiety-related problems.

One of the first psychologists to spark interest in resolving clinical problems from a behavioral point of view, Joseph Wolpe (1915–1997) sought consultation with other behavioral psychologists similar in methodology. James G. Taylor (1897–1973), working in the psychology department of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, was among the psychologists Wolpe sought discussion with. Although most of his work went unpublished, Taylor was the first recorded psychologist to use an exposure therapy treatment for anxiety, including methods of situational exposure with response prevention—a common exposure therapy technique still being utilized. Since the 1950s and the behavior therapy movement, several modes of exposure therapy have proliferated, including systematic desensitization, flooding, implosive therapy, prolonged exposure therapy, in vivo exposure therapy, and imaginal exposure therapy.