Life Enhancing Anxiety - by Kirk Schneider (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Life-Enhancing Anxiety makes a bold proposal: It is not less anxiety that we need today, but more, at least of a certain kind of anxiety. The book comprises a collection of original and previously published essays that converge on what Schneider calls life-enhancing anxiety. Life-enhancing anxiety is the invigorating degree of anxiety needed to become passionately engaged, ethically attuned, and creatively enriched. Set against our anxiety-avoidant times, life-enhancing anxiety enables us to "live with and make the best of the depth and mystery of existence." The potential for life-enhancing anxiety begins at the moment of birth-the point at which we shift from relative nonexistence and unity to sudden, abrupt existence and disunity. This juncture is both daunting and wondrous. Yet it is the management of the juncture by both caretakers and the culture at large that is all important; for it is that management that forms the bedrock for our capacity to deeply live, or to skim only the surfaces; to attain courage, or to seek refuge in gimmicks. The book goes on to elaborate this developmental arc and apply it to a range of personal and social challenges. Among these challenges are Schneider's personal struggle with life-enhancing anxiety; the role of life-enhancing anxiety in the cultivation of a sense of awe (humility and wonder) toward all existence; the role of life-enhancing anxiety in the arts, particularly film and literature; applications within the discipline of psychology; applications to social and political crises (war and violence in particular); and applications to spirituality and religion. Schneider concludes the book with a brief section on the relevant research on life-enhancing anxiety, followed by an Epilogue. The Epilogue summarizes the implications of life-enhancing anxiety for a more sane, sustainable, and awe-informed world.

Review Quotes

This provocative, brilliant, and paradoxically comforting book belongs in the library of anyone who cares about the fate of humanity.

- Nancy McWilliams, PhD, ABPP, Distinguished Affiliate Faculty, Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, author of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Life-Enhancing Anxiety is a stimulating and rewarding read that will be of great value to psychotherapists, scientists, and lay people alike.

- Tom Pyszczynski, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Co-author of The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life with Jeff Greenberg & Sheldon Solomon

The wisdom shared in this book should be enlightening for fellow mental health practitioners and their clients, community educators, and students.

- Dr. Sara Nasserzadeh, Co-Founder of Relationship Panoramic Inc. & Senior Advisor to the United Nations

Schneider beautifully and powerfully illustrates the inescapability of anxiety in the human condition and provides a rigorous model of psychological hardiness.

- Sayyed Mohsen Fatemi, PhD, Adjunct Faculty, Department of Psychology, York University. Author of The Psychology of Inner Peace, Film Therapy, and forthcoming, Therapeutic Applications of Langerian Mindfulness

Drawing from our experiences with COVID, political divides, racial and economic injustice, armed conflicts at home and abroad, tensions over school curricula, climate change, and more, Schneider outlines how the psychology and science of anxiety are key to understanding and solving these problems. He even puts himself on the couch, with exquisite vulnerability. This is an essential read for those looking to understand our culture and our times and to create a life of deep meaning and purpose.

- Linda Michaels, PsyD, MBA, Chair and Co-Founder, Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN) Psychologist, Consulting Editor of Psychoanalytic Inquiry, and Fellow of the Lauder Institute Global MBA program

Schneider offers a vital solution to addressing the epidemic of life-destroying anxiety plaguing our patients and clients. We desperately need a bigger picture of allaying anxiety than conventional psychology, pharmaceuticals, and avoidance through addiction to technology. Cultivation of life-enhancing anxiety is the paradigm shift to cultivate the capacities of love, creativity, humility, wonder, and a sense of adventure toward living-what Schneider calls "awe"-in the midst of so many unknowns. For humanity to thrive in our next chapter on Earth, we need this brilliant book to open a new door to embracing (and engaging with) Life-Enhancing Anxiety.

- Michael Amster, MD, coauthor of The Power of Awe and researcher at the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center