KICKING THE FEAR HABIT

How to exorcise acro-, agora-, claustro-, and a few other phobias with a prurient thought or two that the author calls The Automatic Orienting Reflex--behavioral techniques that replace fear with pleasanter thoughts and gradually ease the subject into the fearsome situation and away from his fear. (In this case, the author has his patients mentally undress stewardesses in planes.) He had us from fear of flying through fear of closets with his train-yourself tips and long lists of panic-eliminating suggestions. Then author Smith discoursed for several chapters about his sex therapy measures. (The patient masturbates naked on a bed with the therapist outside the room. Then, the therapist goes into the room. . . .) Whereupon, we quit.