Clinical applications of bioinformational theory: Understanding anxiety and its treatment

This paper considers the clinical applications of the bioinformational theory of emotion developed by Peter Lang and his colleagues over the past 30 years. Three aspects of this body of work are discussed: the conceptual framework, the methods that were developed to examine the theoretical concepts, and the empirical data that were derived from these methods. The myriad contributions of bioinformational theory to three areas of clinical application are reviewed: assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. It is concluded that bioinformational theory has furthered our understanding of emotion, especially anxiety, and that the theory's recent developments in the area of basic neurophysiological substrata of affect hold promise for continued clinical application.