The Positive Analogue of a Phobia | Psychology Today

The Positive Analogue of a Phobia Psychology Today

"Soterias may be quite common if we go look beyond blankets, Teddy bears, and sweatpants to Lazy-Boy recliners, shag carpets, and turtleneck sweaters. Not to have a soteria may hamper one's ongoing life. Maybe students do well on exams not when they look good but when they feel good. Or maybe a soteria makes our oxytocin surge. Those are interesting empirical issues." *

Access Original Post: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-good-life/201001/the-positive-analogue-phobia

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Published on Psychology Today (http://www.psychologytoday.com/) *

The Positive Analogue of a Phobia ***

By Christopher Peterson, Ph.D.**
Created Jan 12 2010 - 6:09am *

I don't just write blog entries for Psychology Today - I also read them, at least those that are flagged as "essential" or "most read" posts. My strong suspicion is that the title of an entry draws readers more than the content, which is why I try to title my own entries in provocative ways, sometimes even stooping to using profanity or near-profanity in them. I have drawn the line - so far - at writing about Tiger Woods.*

Accordingly, when I came up with the idea for this particular entry, I hesitated about writing it because I didn't know how to title it. The obvious title would be "Soteria," but who would read that? Most don't even know what it means. *

But here you are, so let me explain. A soteria is the positive analogue of a phobia. A phobia is an irrational fear of some object, whereas a soteria is an irrational attraction to some other object. In popular US culture, the most famous soteria is Linus's blanket, but I bet that most of us have our own examples, even if we don't have a label for them. *

Indeed, last semester, when I off-handedly mentioned the notion of a soteria to my large lecture class, I saw more light bulbs turning on above the heads of my students than I had ever seen before. And students started to raise their hands and talk excitedly. They got it because they had it. Mind you, this is not the norm in large lecture classes in a university. *

The stimulus for me writing about soterias was the aftermath of the recent attempt by an airplane passenger to detonate his underwear as the plane was landing in Detroit. He was unsuccessful, but one of the apparent decisions in the wake of this near-tragedy is that airplane passengers will no longer be allowed to have anything in their laps during the last hour of a flight. *

I'm a nervous flier, so you might think I would welcome one more effort to make flying safer. But my reaction was to become even more anxious as I thought ahead to future flights ... and landings. When my planes land, I am always clutching something close to me, usually my jacket or a pillow if available or sometimes just my well-worn briefcase. *

Why do I do this? It makes me feel better. It is thoroughly irrational. The plane will do what the plane will do regardless of what I happen to be holding in my lap (and despite my vigilant scanning for the local equivalent of the Hudson River). But clutching something with a pleasing and familiar feel reduces my anxiety. That's one of the defining features of a soteria. *

Some years ago, Martin Seligman and I were co- teaching a positive psychology class at the University of Pennsylvania. We came up with what we thought would be an interesting out-of-class exercise, or at least an interesting out-of-our-class exercise. Midterm exams were approaching in most of the classes out students were taking, and we suggested that they dress up for their exams - coats and ties, formal dresses, the whole nine yards. We told our students that - perhaps - if they looked good, they would do well. *

And they told us that we were out of our minds. They were going to wear what they always wore for their exams: torn t-shirts, sweat pants or tattered jeans, and even in a few cases bedroom slippers. As to a further suggestion we made - that they get their hair styled right before the exam and put on makeup - they simply laughed. Some of them said that they went into an exam as uncombed and as unwashed as possible! *

Many of the students described their exam gear as lucky, and we didn't persist. *

I didn't put my finger on it at the time, but now I think that what the students were telling us was not about superstitions in the form of "lucky" clothes but rather about soterias. If it were simply about superstition, we would not have seen the incredible convergence that our students reported. *

A soteria may be irrational, but it is not arbitrary. It invariably entails a pleasing texture and a familiar smell. Like a phobia, a soteria is biologically potent. Remember Linus's blanket. Next to losing his blanket, the worst imaginable thing for Linus is to have it washed. Laundry detergent advertisements notwithstanding, sometimes we don't want our things to smell fresh. *

What's the positive point? In the psychoanalytic literature, there are discussions of soterias and their near relatives, so-called transitional objects, as well as their sexual cousins, fetishes. These discussions typically underscore the immaturity that soterias are thought to reflect as well as their link to psychopathology. *

Here I won't touch transitional objects or fetishes (although doing so would feel good, I am sure). I will simply say from a positive psychology point of view that soterias are benign until proven otherwise. Indeed, they may be helpful in reducing anxiety and producing comfort, thereby contributing to the good life. Soterias may be quite common if we go look beyond blankets, Teddy bears, and sweatpants to Lazy-Boy recliners, shag carpets, and turtleneck sweaters. Not to have a soteria may hamper one's ongoing life. Maybe students do well on exams not when they look good but when they feel good. Or maybe a soteria makes our oxytocin surge. Those are interesting empirical issues. *

I'll let you know how my next flight goes. Suggestions are welcome! *
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http://dreamlearndobecome.blogspot.com This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.