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Joseph LeDoux, Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science at NYU's Center for Neural Science, director of that university's Emotional Brain Institute and of the Nathan Kline Institute, and rhythm guitarist and vocalist of the Amygdaloids,1 a rock band, began in the 1970s to study the functioning of the nervous system of rats during conditioning and extinction experiments and its implications regarding the functioning of the human brain.2 With Anxious: Using the Brain to Understand and Treat Fear and Anxiety, he has produced a magnum opus that should be required reading for all psychotherapists and analysts.
The book consists of eleven chapters, each building on the preceding one. Especially valuable are the many figures and tables, which illustrate the book's central points and explain them in a way the reader can easily understand. In addition, discussions in later chapters include references to earlier discussions of the same topic. This is a book not to skim but to study in depth.
The first four chapters introduce a variety of basic science constructs and experiments, including the development of LeDoux's thinking and work, leading to an understanding of the brain processes underlying the emergence of conscious fearful and anxious feelings. Chapters 5 though 8 discuss in great detail how emotions arise and the impact of personal