Fear, Anxiety, and Phobia

This groundbreaking book offers a comprehensive new theoretical framework for understanding fear, anxiety, and phobia through the lens of rationality.

Challenging the fragmented landscape of fear and anxiety research, it exposes fundamental contradictions among existing theories and their failure to provide coherent explanations for these pervasive psychological phenomena. Drawing on selected insights from Freud and Watson while moving beyond the DSM's descriptive framework, the book presents two complementary theories that provide a rational account of psychological distress.

The Psycho-Bizarreness Theory (PBT) offers a new theoretical account of complex neurotic disorders—from panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to anorexia nervosa and dissociative identity disorder—by demonstrating that behaviors traditionally regarded as irrational are, in fact, rational coping strategies adopted under conditions of intolerable stress. Through a systematic analysis of twelve clinical cases spanning a broad range of neurotic disorders, PBT demonstrates that these apparently irrational symptoms suppress distressing thoughts while enhancing perceived control while remaining outside conscious awareness through self-deceptive processes.

Complementing this account, the Rational-Automatic Conditioning Theory (RACT) reconceptualizes the acquisition of simple phobias by identifying the conditions under which conditioned fear becomes automatic while emphasizing the continuing role of rational appraisal. Together, the two theories provide a unified framework for understanding fear, anxiety, and phobia.

This book is indispensable for academic researchers and graduate students in psychology, behavioral economics, cognitive science, and related disciplines, especially those working in anxiety disorders, behavioral conditioning, psychopathology, and decision-making under stress.