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In a tall bold sans serif font, the cover of this superb book reads AFRAID. A tiny stick figure standing high up on the column-like letter “I” peers down apprehensively. This expression of the author's generous humor and humanity captures his gentle approach to his topic. Opening to the introduction, we learn of the childhood episode when he was terrified standing on top of a ladder, a fear we are reassured he overcame.
In the interests of full disclosure, I acknowledge my own good will to Dr. Javanbakht. Over 20 years ago, I served as editor of this journal and received a manuscript from abroad that I barely understood though I recognized its author possessed surpassing intelligence and expertise. Fortunately, I located an informed reviewer willing to referee the manuscript. With both reviewer and author each blinded to the other, I mediated their correspondence as if watching a tennis rally as reviews and drafts flew back and forth, leading in the end to two publications: Javanbakht's “The Theory of Bowl and Bugs: A Model for the Explanation of the Coexistence of Psychological and Biological Etiologies in the Psychosis” (Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis [JAAP], 33, 363–375) and Garfield and colleagues' “Models, Metaphors and Psychopathology: Commentary on Javanbakht's ‘Bugs and Bowls’” (JAAP, 33, 377–384).
Thankfully, Dr. Javanbakht has remained with the essentials of that early paper and has continued exploring the neurophysiologic basis of behavior. He now serves as director of the Stress, Trauma and Anxiety Research Clinic (STARC) at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is the author of numerous academic papers exploring the neuroscience and treatment of fear, anxiety, and trauma.
In the current volume, Javanbakht offers the general reader a fine primer on why we fear and what we can do about it. He avoids the double challenges of technical jargon on one hand and simplistic explanations on the other.
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