Reviews

Many people suffer from phobias and, for the most part, cope by avoiding spiders, air travel, or whatever triggers their particular fear. This becomes difficult when the fears are pervasive or hard to avoid, as in agoraphobia or severe social phobias. Saul, a freelance science and medical journalist and news editor of the European Journal of Cancer, hasn't written a practical self-help book to help sufferers. (For that, see Edmund J. Bourne's The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, for example.) Instead, she explores theories about the causes of phobias from ancient history to the present, from Hippocrates' belief that black bile was the culprit to Freud's theory of repressed sexual desire to current research on neurology, behavior, hormones, electromagnetism, and temperament. This book, which won the United Kingdom's Medical Journalist Association's Tony Thistlewaite Award, is an example of good science writing for the lay reader and is the only of its kind. If you already own the requisite self-help manuals, this work is a good addition to your library. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, WA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Combining a scholarly approach with a self-help writing style, freelance science and medical journalist Saul attempts to explain the roots of phobias. Beginning with a historical overview on how such obsessional fears were once understood, she describes theories that now sound amusing, if not downright odd-fear of spiders, for example, was thought to be caused by excess fluids in the body. Mainly, however, the book seems meant to soothe those who either suffer from phobias or have someone close to them who does. Although Saul draws on academic research for background, her greatest strength is in describing the thoughts of those who have phobias and explaining why, to put it bluntly, they're not crazy. Real-life examples, such as a description of a flight taken by a group of people afraid of flying, give the kind of uplifting tone usually found in self-help volumes, but without the checklists and straightforward declarations that are common in the genre. At times, Saul's writing may be too simple and plainly crafted for readers who yearn for an in-depth exploration into phobias. Sentences like, "Genes are the template from which we develop," or "The more we understand why people become vulnerable to anxiety disorders, the better the advice will become," are frequent, but are often followed by more rigorous thought. This mix of generality, case studies and historical background make Saul's work an excellent primer for those who suffer from phobias or know someone who does. (Dec.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.