We frequently hear that we live in an age of anxiety, from "therapy
culture," the Atkins diet and child anti-depressants, to gun culture
and weapons of mass destruction. While Hollywood regularly cashes in
on teenage anxiety through its Scream franchise, pharmaceutical
companies churn out new drugs such as Paxil to combat newly
diagnosed anxieties.

On Anxiety takes a fascinating, psychological plunge behind the
scenes of our panic stricken culture and into anxious minds, asking
who and what is responsible. Putting anxiety on the couch, Renata
Salecl asks some much-needed questions:

* Is anxiety about the absence of authority or too much of it?
* Do the media report anxiety or create it?
* Are drugs a cure for anxiety or its cause?
* Is anxiety about being yourself or someone else, and is anxiety
really the ultimate obstacle to happiness?

Drawing on vivid examples from films such as The X-Files and Cyrano
de Bergerac, drugs used on soldiers to combat anxiety, the anxieties
of love and motherhood, and fake Holocaust memoirs, Renata Salecl
argues that what really produces anxiety is the attempt to get rid
of it.

Erudite and compelling, On Anxiety is essential reading for anyone
interested in philosophy, psychology and the cultural phenomenon of
anxiety today.

Download File Size:1.24 MB

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