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Anxiety: A Very Short Introduction explains what anxiety is, why it is a normal and vital part of our emotional life, and the factors that cause it. Are we born with fears or do we learn them? What purpose does anxiety serve? How can we treat anxiety disorders? What's happening in our brain when we feel fear? Insights are drawn from psychology, neuroscience, genetics, epidemiology, and clinical trials. The six main anxiety disorders are: phobias; panic disorder and agoraphobia; social anxiety; generalized anxiety disorder; obsessive-compulsive disorder; and post-traumatic stress disorder. The symptoms, prevalence, causes of each of these disorders, and the treatments for dealing with them, are covered.Less

Clinical psychology makes a significant contribution to mental healthcare worldwide. Clinical Psychology: A Very Short Introduction provides insights into the world of clinical psychologists and their clients or patients, and covers the range of domains of practice, difficulties tackled, and approaches and models used. It considers the challenges and controversies facing the profession today, and also how it varies across the globe. Finally, it discusses key questions surrounding clinical psychology, such as whether it should compete or collaborate with psychiatry; how far it is yet another instrument of social control; what new technology can offer in the future; and whether clinical psychology can ever really be considered a science.Less

Since its inception, psychoanalysis has been hailed as a revolutionary theory of how the mind works, and some of its ideas have inspired art, literature, and film, and become part of everyday conversation. Psychoanalysis: A Very Short Introduction offers a wide-ranging survey and offers insights into the therapeutic potential of the psychoanalytic method that Sigmund Freud pioneered. It shows how ideas about the unconscious have been applied, sets out various criticisms of the psychoanalytic procedure, and considers how both practice and theory have evolved since Freud. This VSI assesses the particular challenges now facing the psychoanalytic profession, and shows why psychoanalysis remains an important body of theory, a unique resource for investigating the mind and its many afflictions, and a powerful form of therapeutic treatment.Less