Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Deconstructing Anxiety: The Journey from Fear to Fulfillment

In Deconstructing Anxiety, Pressman provides a new and comprehensive understanding of fear's subtlest mechanisms. In this model, anxiety is understood as the wellspring at the source of all problems. Tapping into this source therefore holds the clues not only for escaping fear, but also for releasing the very causes of suffering, paving the way to a profound sense of peace and satisfaction in life. With strategically developed exercises, this book offers a unique, integrative approach to healing and growth, based on an understanding of how the psyche organizes itself around anxiety. It provides insights into the architecture of anxiety, introducing the dynamics of the "core fear" (one's fundamental interpretation of danger in the world) and "chief defense" (the primary strategy for protecting oneself from threat). The anxious personality is then built upon this foundation, creating a "three dimensional, multi-sensory hologram" within which one can feel trapped and helpless. Replete with processes that bring the theoretical background into technicolor, Deconstructing Anxiety provides a clear roadmap to resolving this human dilemma, paving the way to an ultimate and transcendent freedom. Therapists and laypeople alike will find this book essential in helping design a life of meaning, purpose and enduring fulfillment. Review This book explores a truly profound and important area and does so in a wonderfully readable, enjoyable fashion. Its central point is well expressed by the Upanishads: 'Where there is other, there is fear.' This notion is greatly expanded upon and creatively explored in the book, with the purpose of helping the reader overcome fear altogether, replacing it with the original, ultimate, and ever-present Oneness...whole, coherent, and unified.--Ken Wilber, author of Integral Meditation [A] truly awesome book. . . a graduate level text for training psychotherapists. . . .a lifetime accomplishment. [Appropriate for] students and clinicians, as well as lay people who [seek] enhanced insight into their own or a loved one's anxiety. [It should] become 'state of the art' [for] practitioners and scholars. Congratulations on this fine work.--Bonita Blazer, educational specialist and consultant A really fascinating book. I've never encountered a deeper analysis of fear than what Todd Pressman offers in Deconstructing Anxiety. As he weaves together many strands of psychology and other disciplines, he exposes the lies of fear that shatter our connection with fundamental wholeness. In doing so, Pressman offers a detailed plan to turn the tables and discover lasting peace.--Seth J. Gillihan, author of The CBT Deck and A Mindful Year A valuable therapeutic resource for either clinicians or the general public. . . [with] far reaching implications for personal well being and the wellness of society as a whole. The book presents a concise, systematic set of methods for discovering the central fear underlying most psychological difficulties. . . . As a psychologist with thirty years of clinical experience, I can most enthusiastically recommend Deconstructing Anxiety: The Journey from Fear to Fulfillment.--John Monopoli, clinical psychologist An exceptional book on familiar and challenging topics that we all deal with. It points out how we have become accustomed to our fear and that our investment in anxiety is costly. We learn from these pages that fear has no backbone and therefore is approachable with sincere inquiry. This book is unpretentious in its delivery and forthcoming with strategies to achieve results. I recommend suspending doubt and leveraging the exercises to conduct your own examination into the illusions of fear. This book takes what we normally process in our heads and blends it in a way to soothe our hearts.--James Maskery, Program Management Professional An extraordinary work of love, insight and wisdom. This book weaves together various psychological models, neurophysiology, phil