[Personality structure and subjective illness concepts of phobic anxiety neurotic patients. Qualitative comparison of 12 individual analyses of initial psychotherapy interviews].

Verbatim transcripts of 12 psychotherapeutic interviews with patients suffering from phobia and panic disorders were examined, focussing on subjective theories of illness, biography, and descriptions of the own personality. The results of our qualitative content analysis allow the reconstruction of some central features of these patients, like characterizing the own personality as normal and without any problems in a stereotype way (1), at the same time feeling wrong understood and exploited from other persons (2), feeling as an outsider and left alone (3), and being no more able to compete with others (4). These and other findings are discussed in the context of psychoanalytic concepts of phobia and panic disorders.