Disgust/ Fear Hierarchy

 

Vintage buttons, thread, remnant of child's shirt and tape measure on vintage French bed linen

50 x 50 cm

I found only one piece of clinical research which dealt with button phobia and its treatment:

 

 

Case Study: Disgust and a Specific Phobia of Buttons

Lissette M Saavedr MS abd Wendy K Silverman PhD

Journ. Am. Child and Adoles. Psychiatry          Nov 2002

 

This study deals with the treatment of a 9 year old boy with a phobia of buttons. He developed his phobia after an incident while taking part in an art project involving buttons when he was 5. The button bowl on his teacher’s desk slipped as he reached into it and the buttons fell over him. Four years later the progressive distress he felt around buttons meant he was unable to dress himself and found it difficult to concentrate at school. The study interestingly differentiates between the reactions of disgust and fear in childhood phobias and charts an exposure based therapy which finally cures him of his phobia.

 

This picture is a direct representation of his initial distress at a range of buttons.