OUR ANXIOUS SELVES

This title discusses the outsized role that fear, anxiety, and other distressing emotions play in forming fundamental aspects of who we are.

Using recent findings from neuropsychology, Our Anxious Selves shows that who we are psychologically starts with the early presence of an easily aroused fear/anxiety system. It goes on to discuss how clinicians can view people's difficulties with self-confidence and identity, and how self-destructive patterns can be traced back to these systems and what clinicians can do to help. Our Anxious Selves also touches on intergenerational transmission of trauma, as well as people's responses to COVID-19, PTSD, and real and imagined threats. Efrat Ginot, PhD, is a psychologist-psychoanalyst and supervisor in New York City.