Many individuals consulting for the constellation of problems we call social phobia mention (often unprompted) having “always been that way”: wary of unknown people, unobtrusive, and timid. Similarly tempered members of the family (a mother, an uncle) are pointed out for good measure, implying “it is in the blood.” Other individuals clearly relate current problems, to vividly remembered and rather dramatic triggering events (typically) in early adolescence (e.g. DeWit, Ogborne, Offord, & MacDonald, 1999). Peeing in terror while waiting in line for confession, standing beet-red, drenched in sweat, heart pounding, mind blank (but hearing the laughter of derision of the other pupils) after being singled out in class and asked by the teacher to rise and recite a poem, are remembered as watersheds.

These examples draw our attention both to the ostensible stability of the problems as well as to the time-contingent nature of their coming into being. Specifically, as we seek explanations for the origins of social phobia, we might wonder whether the full-blown pattern is already prefigured in certain features of the young organism expressing genetic imperatives, or whether social phobia emerges gradually, and not inevitably, through processes and circumstances unique to an individual.

In contrast to other accounts we have encountered in previous chapters, a truly developmental outlook would not seek to pinpoint the figurative “mechanisms” (neurophysiological, psychological) allegedly controlling social phobia at the present (e.g. due to either genetic defects or environmental “pathogens”).