Phobias: Fighting the Fear

by Helen Saul

An informative look at phobias draws on examples from literature, history, and personal memoirs to analyze these obsessional fears, examines various theories regarding their causes, answers frequently asked questions about phobias, and discusses a variety of potential treatment options. 15,000 first printing.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published April 2, 2001

Reviews

[dejah_thoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ignore the blurb that makes this sound like a self-help book because it isn't. It's really a solid overview of the current psychology and neuroscience behind all phobias from agoraphobia to anxiety to social phobia to specific phobias like animals, blood, and the dark. Written in a highly conversational tone that makes it easy to read, Saul starts off with history and evolutionary biology theory and then moves through the current (as of 2002) research in genetics, neurophysiology, behavior, cognition, temperament, hormones, light, electromagnetism, and physical problems like the inner ear and how they relate to the broad topic of phobias. Having an anxiety disorder and a mild interest in psychology, I found this book fascinating enough to keep forcing it on one of my coworkers who is getting their degree in psychology. Personally, I found the neuroscience chapter the most compelling, but there are many theories in the other sections I hadn't countenanced before either, so this is definitely worth reading.

[Kalvin Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone has some fear. Not everyone suffers from an irrational phobia. You don't want to go on an airplane. You can't bring yourself to climb a set of stairs or use an escalator.-both two different levels of a fear of heights. Thie book was a stepping stone to help uncover the phobias you may have. Great Read.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a self-help book but rather a history of how mankind has explained phobia through the years. I found it quite enjoyable to read about the mental, emotional, and physical causes of phobia and how phobias relate to other anxiety disorders.
The writer is a journalist in health and medicine and not a clinician but does a good job with this book.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the title, this sounds like a self-help book, but really it's more of an overview of what science knows about phobias and how they're treated. The author ends up spending a lot of time on agoraphobia and social phobia, because these afflictions tend to behave differently than your run-of-the-mill phobias like fear of snakes or heights, and are also more difficult to treat. The author does a good job of writing about the various theories in a way that's accessible, but doesn't feel overly simplified, and I found the accounts of the different techniques used to treat phobias to be really interesting.

[Kristy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much evolution crap to be a good read.