Guilt, shame, and anxiety Understanding and overcoming negative emotions

Review by Choice Review

A Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former consultant to the National Institute of Mental Health, Breggin has published numerous peer-reviewed papers and books (the latter include The Heart of Being Helpful: Empathy and the Creation of a Healing Process, 1997), often presenting alternatives to drug therapy. In addition, he established the Center for the Study of Empathetic Therapy, Education, and Living to promote caring and effective therapy. Here he explores the biological and evolutionary nature of what he terms "negative legacy emotions" and describes a plan to overcome their crippling aspects. He has an easy-to-read writing style and conveys complex research findings in everyday language. A key strength of this volume is that Breggin makes his case by drawing on current research findings rather than by relying on anecdotal evidence. Accordingly, though it is essentially a self-help guide, the book will be useful in an academic setting as well as to lay readers. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --Melissa Hawthorne, Texas A&M University-Commerce

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This engrossing self-help guide from psychiatrist Breggin (Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal) relies on a speculative account of how human evolution still affects our emotional well-being today. Breggin's premise is that many emotional problems stem from the conflict between two central human impulses rooted in evolution: the need for intimacy and a propensity for aggression. He goes on to argue that the three titular emotions served early humans by bridging these two impulses, inhibiting the most incendiary emotions so that familial and societal relationships could survive. By this reasoning, those people with the highest capacity for self-restraining emotions were those who survived and passed on their genes. Breggin thus intends to help readers free themselves of these no longer necessary, negative "legacy" emotions. Criticizing the main run of self-help tomes as inconclusive, Breggin claims that it is indeed possible to willfully oust guilt, shame, and anxiety from our emotional repertoires. He proceeds to show how negative legacy emotions are exacerbated by developments in language and childhood trauma. Breggin conveys empathy and maintains a clear, conversational tone while spelling out his prescriptions for overriding destructive impulses in a variety of real-world situations. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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