Anxious: The Modern Mind in the Age of Anxiety by Joseph E LeDoux, book review

A real-life cure for the worriers of the world

Liz Hoggard
Wednesday 19 August 2015 19:58 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

If you fell for the dazzling blend of animation and neuroscience in Pixar film Inside Out (where the brain of a young girl, Riley, is imagined as a control room where cartoon characters Joy, Sadness and Fear fight over her "core memories"), this study of anxiety by renowned US neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux is timely.

Anxiety is the most prevalent psychiatric problem of our time, LeDoux argues. Decades of research have gone into probing its mysteries and developing treatments (exposure therapy, drugs, talking cures). But what if we've been thinking about fear and anxiety, and emotions in general, in the wrong way?

LeDoux believes fear and anxiety are not innate, pre-packaged states, simply waiting to be unleashed in the brain. Rather they are cognitively assembled (each individual's experience is different), and that has huge implications for patients with debilitating anxiety. By mapping brain circuits, LeDoux explains the origins of anxiety disorders and reveals discoveries he believes can restore sufferers to normality.

Arguably the biggest revelation is the fact that fear manifests itself in the brain both "non-consciously" (when the "survival circuits" pick up a change in atmosphere or a threat on the horizon) and "consciously" (when we notice these symptoms of fear – tight gut, tense muscles – and try to explain, through language, why we are feeling like this). Real distress occurs when the stories that we tell about these body sensations get out of hand.

People suffering panic disorders start to fear a potential event in the future and go to great lengths to avoid new situations that elicit anxiety. A natural desire to stay alive became a form of obsessive risk avoidance.

There is fascinating detail in the book on the difference between semantic memory (knowledge about a thing or situation) and episodic memories (memories in which YOU have a personal involvement, like your wedding). Episodic memory helps us use the past to create predictions about the future - just as in Inside Out, memories of the events of the day come into Riley's HQ (the hippocampus) as they happen and are stored there for a short time, then sent out to long-term storage as she sleeps.

A word of warning however, this is not a book for lay readers. It can be dense, impenetrable. The publishers have cannily given it an arresting cover (young girl perched on diving board), but this is pure science rather than popular psychology.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in