A Brief History of Anxiety...Yours and Mine [Hardcover]

Patricia Pearson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2008

A bold new view of anxiety from an unerringly smart and funny writer who has suffered from it her whole life.

The millions of Americans who silently cope with anxiety at last have a witty, articulate champion in Patricia Pearson, who shows that the anxious are hardly “nervous nellies” with “weak characters” who just need medicine and a pat on the head. Instead, Pearson questions what it is about twenty-first century American culture that is making people anxious, and offers some surprising answers—as well as some inspiring solutions based on her own fierce battle to drive the beast away.

Drawing on personal episodes of incapacitating dread as a vivid, often hilarious guide to her quest to understand this most ancient of human emotions, Pearson delves into the history and geography of anxiety. Why are North Americans so much more likely to suffer than Latin Americans? Why did Darwin treat hypochondria with sprays from a hose? Why have we forgotten the insights of some of our greatest philosophers, theologians, and psychologists in favor of prescribing addictive drugs? In this blend of fascinating reportage and poignant memoir, Pearson ends with her struggle to withdraw from antidepressants and to find more self-aware and philosophically grounded ways to strengthen the soul.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Novelist and nonfiction writer Pearson (When She Was Bad) was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder at 23 in 1987; she had suffered a nervous breakdown after discovering that her lover was sleeping with another woman. In a rambling fashion, she traces the roots of her anxiety to a youth spent in tumultuous New Delhi, where her diplomat father was posted when an Indian-Pakistani war broke out over Bangladesh. Genetically, she traces her anxiety to a grandmother whose famous biting wit was likely, she surmises, a manifestation of anxiety and depression. Pearson quotes a range of sources, including the 2002 World Mental Health Survey and angst-ridden Kierkegaard, Keats and Whitman. Pearson's anxieties constantly shift according to the stresses in her life, and an adverse reaction to antidepressants once caused her to make sexual advances to her daughter's friend's mother. Citizens of affluent U.S. and Canada are more prone to dread and panic than Mexicans, says Pearson, who herself grew up in a privileged Canadian family with a grandfather who was prime minister and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Although often self-indulgent and overwritten, Pearson's quirky memoir should strike a chord with some of the 40 million American adults suffering from clinical anxiety. (Mar. 4)
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Review

“In this captivating book, Pearson weaves in vivid descriptions of her own emotional upheavals with insights and explanations from philosophers and psychologists, historic and contemporary. The combination makes the book stimulating, accessible, and relevant. Pearson has given us an insightful and entertaining book.”—Body & Soul

“Highly amusing…[Pearson] examine[s] modern civilization and its discontents, as well as her own miseries, which she does, thoughtfully and incisively. Major points for wit and flair.” —New York Times

“Exhilarating. Finely crafted. Pearson makes plenty of intriguing and arguable observations. If you're anxious all the time and you think about that anxiety a lot, this collection will provide you some companionable relief.”—Slate

“Pearson is a daredevil on the page; her prose somersaults and vaults, does splits and juggles, keeping the reader entertained by her wit and amazed by her dexterity as an investigative journalist.”—Newsday

“[Pearson] offers readers a learned hand through the fraught world of anxiety politics...this book offers the anxious reader a recipe, one that is sure to quiet.”—Newsday

"Pearson’s quirky memoir should strike a chord with some of the 40 million American adults suffering from clinical anxiety."—Publishers Weekly

"Insightfully probes one of the oldest and least-understood psychological conditions...[a] well-constructed book...lively. [Pearson] 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. A wholly satisfying mix of memoir, cultural history and investigative journalism." —Kirkus Reviews

"In this meditation on anxiety, shot through with bright insights and shafts of illumination, Patricia Pearson has subtly interwoven her personal story with the history of anxiety in a manner that left me revisiting both the book and my memories of it long after I had finished. "A Brief History" deftly conveys a sense of where we have come to, offers succor to anyone afflicted with nerves, and may yet take a place beside some of the cultural landmarks in the field."—David Healy, author of Let Them Eat Prozac

"If only more psychology were written with the literate intelligence of this book. It is a weaving of stories that accomplishes a great deal: cultural analysis, psychological insight, and personal reflection. You will enjoy it and learn from it. If you are ever afraid of the dark, crowds of people, heights, and the insanity of your fellow humans, as I am, you may find comfort here."—Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul and A Life's Work

“What makes A Brief History of Anxiety sing is the wryly funny, winning voice of its author. Pearson has a gift for weaving personal experience into cultural analysis, resulting in something both entertaining and true. She's created a book that will offer comfort, insight and wisdom about a condition that touches nearly all of us in some way.”—Peggy Orenstein, author of Waiting for Daisy and Schoolgirls

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; First Edition edition (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596912987
• ISBN-13: 978-1596912984
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,109,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Anxious Days Indeed., March 17, 2008

By 

Bernard Chapin "Ora Et Labora!" (CHICAGO! USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Brief History of Anxiety...Yours and Mine (Hardcover)

I don't actually know Patricia Pearson but have interviewed her twice. I totally loved When She Was Bad and was thus excited to read A Brief History of Anxiety. Overall, I enjoyed the book. Pearson is a creative, lively, and skilled writer who possesses keen wit and intelligence. For such a short book there certainly is a great deal of information available here on the topic of anxiety. It is not the first book I've read on the subject but it offered several insights of which I was not previously aware--such as the differences between American and Chinese socialization which result in lower levels of anxiety in eastern mothers and their offspring. The only reason I could not give the book 5 stars is that I felt that too much of it concerned the author. I did ask her about this and she stated essentially that this is to be expected as it is a memoir. Well, that's true if it's a memoir but I did not know this before cracking the spine. Its title, A Brief History of Anxiety [Yours and Mine], caused me to regard it as being more of a dispassionate study of the psychological condition. Perhaps that was a misassumption on my part alone as its autobiographical nature will be intuited by other readers. If it isn't at least I have illuminated its personal focus here. Regardless, spending time with Pearson's pen is always a good use of time.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Live with your fears, beleive your life has meaning, and avoide drugs, October 12, 2010

By 

Richard R. Powell (Nanaimo, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Brief History of Anxiety...Yours and Mine (Hardcover)

The first part of this book grabs some people (see other reviews on this site) but while I found the material engaging enough, I can't say it exactly grabbed me. But the writing was sparky and clever enough that I persevered.

On page 12 she is already wrestling with Kierkegaard's paradox of both wanting freedom from anxiety and at the same time being strangely attracted to the self-creating energy of the anxiety itself. Her blunt suggestion is that anxiety comes from the illusion that we can control what happens to us, and once we let go of that illusion we can start to see that it is flexibility rooted in principles that we need, or in simpler words, we just need to grow up.

She discusses childhood trauma and "anxiety sensitivity" -- that state of fearing the panic attack itself, as much as the original source of fear.

She discusses various therapists and theorists who over time have prescribed what seem to me to be forms of cognitive therapy. Some of this seem pretty insightful.I liked Kurt Goldstein's idea that anxiety is cued off by a threat to some value we hold and think is central to our existence. I liked the idea of Rollo May and Paul Tillich discussing the dread of non-being -- or more specifically the "unease about possessing neither purpose nor impact." "Holy crap I'm a nobody!" That certainly stresses me out the first time I realized it. I was so impressed by this idea that I went out and bought May's book on anxiety.

She discusses the different attitudes toward anxiety in Mexico and China and rightly points out that anxiety tends to be a north western phenomena. Anxiety, it seems, is a luxury of the upper class urban dweller. She at first pins this on the loss of community but concedes that maybe it is the loss of belief in God, or the concept of time, or the simple fact that the more you have to lose the more anxious you get.

There is a discussion of mindset and the suggestion that we might benefit from adopting the attitude of Kenyans who look on their great luck when narrowly avoiding disaster, rather than the disaster itself.

The most repetitive theme in the book, if there is one, is the painful truth that people who believe that events occur randomly -- outside of any larger story or grand design -- are in the worst shape. We need a narrative, some meaning-making explanation, it seems, to stabilize the freaked out Western mind. All that time spent fighting fate makes us more anxious.

By page 134 she rounds on the old chestnut that artists and other creative people are generally flirting most of the time with some form of mental illness. The complex cluster of traits that allows us to think outside the box also allows us to open ourselves to possibilities that others happily bury in their subconscious. The anxious are more fully awake than others.

Finally by page 164 we get a jewel worth the price of the book. Sure we quivering mass of uber-aware "gazers at the dark void beyond illusion" are in desperate need of something to close down our run-away minds, and sure maybe we need a little religion or at the very least ritual, to stabilize our expanding self, but the good news is that we don't have to compromise our creativity or principles to get that. We can circle back and pick up the good things of religion and myth while at the same time making a place at the table for uncertainty and existential questions.

She concludes with Goldstein again, "Courage, in its final analysis, is nothing but an affirmative answer to the shocks of existence, which must be borne for the actualization of one's own nature." The way past or anxiety is through our anxiety. live with it, feel it, keep growing, keep believing in a higher meaning and purpose.

Oh, and forget the drugs.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Title is a bit misleading, May 2, 2010

By 

Clarisse McClellan (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Brief History of Anxiety...Yours and Mine (Paperback)

While this book was an interesting and well-written account of the author's own anxiety, I didn't feel that the book really lived up to its title. There were a few sections about anxiety from a historical perspective, but the majority of the book focused on her own life.

The book took a bit of a twist towards the end, when we basically learn that anti-anxiety meds are evil and difficult to get off of. This part is especially weak as no research or stats are presented (unless you consider googling a medication research). I am fine with her having her own opinion about meds, however, it was a one-sided diatribe and didn't offer much perspective.

Not a bad book, but go into it realizing that this isn't really a book about the history of anxiety. It's one person's story.