Feeling the fear

摘要

Scott Stossel is, in his own words, a "quivering, quaking, neurotic wreck". He is frightened of flying, vomiting and cheese. He has thrown tennis matches from a winning position just to get off the exposed stage of the court, and struggles to control his bowels. For three decades he has been a regular in the offices and clinics of psychiatrists, psychologists and psychoanalysts, and a testing ground for whatever treatment, drug or quack therapy they thought might bring some relief. Stossel is also a married father of two and editor of The Atlantic magazine. His terrific book My Age of Anxiety is his attempt to reconcile those two worlds, and offers an unsparing and unsentimental look at a subject that many keep hidden: mental illness.