Fears, Phobias, and Rituals

This book is unique in bringing together information on fear and anxiety disorders from many disciplines, including ethology, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, psychology, and psychiatry. Definitive as a reference work, it is also fascinating to read. With over 3000 entries in the bibliography, the book is extremely thorough both in presenting the scientific basis for understanding fear behaviour and in describing anxiety disorders and their treatment. Dealing first with normal fear and then with clinical syndromes, it describes the phenomena and the factors known to influence them. It synthesizes naturalistic and experimental work in animals and humans so that researchers and clinicians can understand each other's work. The book will be of special use to behavioural scientists, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, and of interest to many others.