Phobias - by Helen Saul (Paperback)

About the Book

A fascinating, unbiased study of what phobias are, how they occur and how we can stop them.

Book Synopsis

A fascinating, unbiased study of what phobias are, how they occur and how we can stop them.

Two in five people struggle through life under the burden of a phobia of some kind. Yet little has been done to help these sufferers understand their affliction and hence minimise it. Recent researches in evolutionary theory, physiology, neuroscience and genetics have begun to analyse the causes and effects of human phobia and have come up with thought-provoking, but widely differing, interpretations and prescriptions.

Why are phobias easier to cope with at night or when wearing sunglasses? How do phobias differ throughout the world and history? Are phobias biological or psychological? Is the fear of spiders, snakes and darkness an evolutionary throwback? Does aversion therapy work? Is phobia hereditary?

The first book to balance all these issues, 'Phobias: Fighting the Fear' is a powerful, uniquely accessible work of popular science.

From the Back Cover

What are phobias and how are they caused? Hippocrates saw them as the result of an excess of black bile, medieval theologians blamed possession by evil spirits, and Freud went searching for repressed sexual desires. Although two in five people struggle through life with some kind of phobia, little has been done to help these sufferers. But in the last couple of decades, scientists and doctors in the fields of evolutionary theory, physiology, neuroscience and genetics have finally begun to analyse the causes and effects of human phobia and have come up with thought-provoking, but wildly differing, interpretations and prescriptions. Now for the first time, there is real progress toward a fuller understanding of phobias.

Drawing on vivid examples from literature and extensive interviews with sufferers, in 'Phobias' Helen Saul describes and demystifies all the latest research. Childhood temperaments and personality dispositions are considered, as are more speculative environmental theories. Why are phobias easier to cope with at night or wearing sunglasses? Is fear of spiders, snakes or darkness an evolutionary throwback? How do phobias differ throughout the world and history? Are phobias principally biological or physiological? Does aversion therapy work? Is a phobia always hereditary? And, most importantly, how can phobias be cured - permanently? The only book to disclose and assess all the theories and to seek to answer all the questions, 'Phobias' is a powerfully useful, uniquely accessible work of popular science.

Review Quotes

'Wide-ranging and scholarly'
The Spectator

About the Author

Helen Saul is a freelance science writer, often contributing to New Scientist. She is married and lives in Oxford. She has never suffered from a phobia.