A wholly satisfying mix of memoir, cultural history and investigative journalism.
Novelist and USA Today contributor Pearson (Area Woman Blows Gasket, 2005, etc.) insightfully probes one of the oldest—and least-understood—psychological conditions.
In this slim but well-constructed book, the author weaves her own experiences—she was officially diagnosed with “generalized anxiety disorder” at age 23, following a nervous breakdown caused by her breakup with a man she “loved as fiercely as Heloise loved Abelard”—with a lively history of anxiety and its many sufferers. She begins by exploring the murky relation among fear, anxiety and depression: “Our fears are private, arbitrary, idiosyncratic, and very often masked. Anxiety rages undetected in the mind, both secretive and wild.” And she employs a pleasing blend of personal anecdote and historical context. Despite her often playful tone and poetic, evocative language, Pearson provides countless intriguing historical examples, backed by an extensive notes section, including discussions of ancient philosophy, medicine and theology; Darwin’s treatment of his hypochondria (he was sprayed with a hose); American composer Allen Shawn’s agoraphobia; and the Middle Ages practice of summoning animals to court to stand trial, simply in the interest of holding something accountable when things went awry. She also examines contemporary manifestations of anxiety: widespread depression and fear of being fired from one’s job; pressure to succeed, illustrated by the case of Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard sophomore who in 2006 was shown to have plagiarized most of her much-hyped debut novel from other authors; and Flu Wiki, a website devoted to those obsessed with an epidemic outbreak of influenza. Most readers won’t be surprised to learn that, according to a World Mental Health Survey, the “United States has the highest level of anxiety in the world, with a lifetime prevalence rate of 28.8 percent.” (Compare that with Mexico, in which, according to the author, 93.4 percent of people have never experienced an instance of anxiety or depression.) The author concludes with a chronicle of her negative experiences with prescription drugs like Effexor and Lexapro, and the charge—a common one these days—that psychiatrists are overprescribing in lieu of less-invasive treatments like behavioral therapy.
A wholly satisfying mix of memoir, cultural history and investigative journalism.Pub Date: March 4, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59691-298-4
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2008
An intriguing study for students of military culture and mental health.
A challenge to conventional wisdom about the military ignoring PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and suicide among troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kieran (History, American Studies/Washington & Jefferson Coll.; Forever Vietnam: How a Divisive War Changed American Public Memory, 2014, etc.) never denies the seriousness of PTSD, TBI, and suicide among active and discharged veterans. However, he contends that critics of the military and federal bureaucracy often downplay the complexities of understanding the problems and finding effective solutions. In fact, he contends, implacable anti-war critics have unfairly used the psychological injuries for political ends. “In a climate in which anti-war sentiment was often dismissed with assertions that critics were not supporting the troops,” writes Kieran, “pointing out how the wars were harming those troops facilitated broader policy critiques.” Before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, research about PTSD, TBI, and suicide was based on the premise that deployments would be brief and that the same troops would not be ordered to return to the same war zones multiple times. When the nature of war changed, the military and the Veterans Administration had to recalibrate their policies and their research to react to new realities. As the author points out, those recalibrations take time and don’t usually conform to the urgent needs of combat veterans. Kieran’s research takes readers inside the medical arm of military services and civilian government bureaucracies, showing dedicated researchers and administrators trying to reach consensus about how to treat—and perhaps even prevent—serious mental damage and suicide. The author stresses that the disagreements about how to proceed derive from compassionate advocates relying on science-based research. Kieran rejects the commonly held belief that those in charge of warfare are dismissive of effective treatments for veterans. Throughout, the author provides memorable individual case studies. Much of the book, however, relies on dense academic research and a scholarly writing style, so general readers will need to pay close attention to digest the author’s arguments.
An intriguing study for students of military culture and mental health.Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4798-9236-5
Page Count: 404
Publisher: New York Univ.
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
This concise overview and defense of women's fury and its constructive potential is a rehash of feminist writings of the past two decades. Valentis and Devane (both teach literature at SUNY Albany) begin by documenting the numerous ways female rage has historically been stigmatized (as hysteria, as erotomania, as evil) in art, literature, psychotherapy, and the media—from Ovid and Freud to Snow White's wicked stepmother and Fatal Attraction. Given these images, they say, it is not surprising that women succumb to social pressures to be attractive, pliant, and self-sacrificing or that they sometimes mask socially unsanctioned feelings of anger with smiles, depression, phobias, panic attacks, or passive-aggressive behavior. Nonetheless, female rage is real (best illustrated, the authors say, by the Lorena Bobbitt case and many women's support of her actions) and is now ``loose in the land.'' Their favorite symbol—the ``gatekeeper of the secret realm of female rage''—is Medusa, a once-beautiful maiden who was violated by Poseidon, turned into a hideous beast, and finally slain by Perseus. Recasting Medusa as a symbol of female strength and sexual power, the authors recommend that, instead of repressing or denying their anger, women get in touch with their inner Medusa, utilize their power, and find rational ways to direct their rage. Many of their examples are drawn from interviews describing various personal confrontations (such as discovering a partner's infidelity), and the question of how issues of female rage are or should be handled in professional or political contexts is largely ignored. This omission exemplifies the lightweight tone of the book. Despite some good advice to women on handling rage, this often reads like a collection of articles from glossy women's magazines (a quiz in the appendix is called ``How Enraged Are You?''). A lackluster contribution to the literature of female empowerment. (40 b&w illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-517-59584-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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