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Book- la Peur des autres
Authors: Christophe André ; Patrick Légeron
Note: 8/10
Year: 2005 (1995)*
Odile Jacob, ISBN 2738112366
*332 pages (I read this pocket edition) / 272 pages (1995 edition)
Language: French
Authors: Christophe André ; Patrick Légeron
Note: 8/10
Year: 2005 (1995)*
Odile Jacob, ISBN 2738112366
*332 pages (I read this pocket edition) / 272 pages (1995 edition)
Language: French
This book is informative and lifts the veil, as desired by the two authors, psychologists, on the various forms of social anxieties: stage fright, shyness, social phobia. It is illustrated by numerous cases of both author's patients, to better demonstrate every facet.
Self-evalutation grids, questions throughout the book and in the Appendix, helps to answer the question '' do I have social anxieties, and where, how, under what circumstances? '' - I presume one doesn't read this book without an idea about it, or in my case, some certainties and a suggested reading ...
I tell myself that only I am not alone, that there are many more people who suffer, maybe worse than me, and there's also are possible aids, although they are not always easy to find, given the medical and delays of a society that advocates ''Sort this out yourself, life is suffering anyway'' ...
The book is divided in several parts.
It's chapters explain the various forms of social anxieties, dividing them in 4 families : fear of failure, fear of revealing oneself, fear of self affirmation and fear of being observed.
The authors subsequently explain the body's reactions in social anxieties. I found the etymologies of the terms employed in describing these reactions very interesting.
They demonstrate how an anxiety on social situation can make people clumsy and how most of us will try to avoid these stressful situations.
Then, they explain the negative thoughts (also called negative cognitions) of social phobic people.
In the second part of the book, the authors continue their presentation and explain the difference between a banal fear, and the ones social phobics suffer from : stage fright and apprehensions, shyness, avoident personality and social phobia.
The third part explains why we are afraid of others, and is divided in 2 chapters regaring the psyche's mechanisms and origines. They explain how human evolution developed fears to avoid dangers, but which result in ingrained fears even after the nature of the dangers have totally changed.
The origines of these modern fears can be biological, sometimes hereditary, psychodynamic or sociological.
The most interesting is the fourth part as it concentrates on solutions, how to overcome fear of others. It is divided in 5 chapters, the first of which relates to medical treatments and psychotherapy (explaining the importance of the latter as more important the former), and prefer cognitive therapy in which the patient is active in elaborating lists of situations and the therapist helps sort them and face them gradually, so the patient can learn to expand their confort zone.
Then, the authors explain these gradual exposure technics, and emphasize the importance of communication and changing one's thoughts.
The fifth, and last, chapter, is a synthesis of the entire book in which the authors explain the difficulties in diagnosis, and the importance that the medical personal learns to detect and diagnose sooner as many patients suffer from social anxieties.
Many short testimonies accompany each chapter.
The book ends with self diagnosis tools in the appendix.
Self-evalutation grids, questions throughout the book and in the Appendix, helps to answer the question '' do I have social anxieties, and where, how, under what circumstances? '' - I presume one doesn't read this book without an idea about it, or in my case, some certainties and a suggested reading ...
I tell myself that only I am not alone, that there are many more people who suffer, maybe worse than me, and there's also are possible aids, although they are not always easy to find, given the medical and delays of a society that advocates ''Sort this out yourself, life is suffering anyway'' ...
The book is divided in several parts.
It's chapters explain the various forms of social anxieties, dividing them in 4 families : fear of failure, fear of revealing oneself, fear of self affirmation and fear of being observed.
The authors subsequently explain the body's reactions in social anxieties. I found the etymologies of the terms employed in describing these reactions very interesting.
They demonstrate how an anxiety on social situation can make people clumsy and how most of us will try to avoid these stressful situations.
Then, they explain the negative thoughts (also called negative cognitions) of social phobic people.
In the second part of the book, the authors continue their presentation and explain the difference between a banal fear, and the ones social phobics suffer from : stage fright and apprehensions, shyness, avoident personality and social phobia.
The third part explains why we are afraid of others, and is divided in 2 chapters regaring the psyche's mechanisms and origines. They explain how human evolution developed fears to avoid dangers, but which result in ingrained fears even after the nature of the dangers have totally changed.
The origines of these modern fears can be biological, sometimes hereditary, psychodynamic or sociological.
The most interesting is the fourth part as it concentrates on solutions, how to overcome fear of others. It is divided in 5 chapters, the first of which relates to medical treatments and psychotherapy (explaining the importance of the latter as more important the former), and prefer cognitive therapy in which the patient is active in elaborating lists of situations and the therapist helps sort them and face them gradually, so the patient can learn to expand their confort zone.
Then, the authors explain these gradual exposure technics, and emphasize the importance of communication and changing one's thoughts.
The fifth, and last, chapter, is a synthesis of the entire book in which the authors explain the difficulties in diagnosis, and the importance that the medical personal learns to detect and diagnose sooner as many patients suffer from social anxieties.
Many short testimonies accompany each chapter.
The book ends with self diagnosis tools in the appendix.
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