Understanding and Overcoming Fear

by Margee Kerr

If you listed your emotions from your most favorite to your least, chances are that fear would not be among the favorites. And yet, if we ordered our emotions according to their importance for our survival, fear would certainly be at the top. Without fear, we simply wouldn’t be here. Fear is a strong emotion that can hold us back, move us forward, and bind us to others in our group. But what exactly is it?

In Understanding and Overcoming Fear, sociologist Margee Kerr, PhD, explains the physiological and contextual aspects of fear, revealing the complexities of this powerful emotion and explaining why you can never experience the exact same fear twice. In 24 episodes, illustrated with fascinating graphics, Professor Kerr takes you on a journey similar to the one she has taken in her own work - from considering fear as a toxic, destructive force that needs to be defeated to an emotion with tremendous upsides in the right circumstances.

It used to be accepted that experiences, and our physical responses to them, were inherently good or bad. Now we know that context is everything. No one wants to feel the sharp sting of fear that comes from being followed while walking down a dark street alone at night. But what if you and your friends are in a haunted castle and a man jumps out at you? You’re likely to shriek, but you’re also likely to say at the end, “Wow, that was fantastic.” Why does it feel so good?

In Understanding and Overcoming Fear, you will discover a great deal about American fears, phobias, and the treatments for both. You’ll learn about numerous, effective ways to manage and overcome fears and how to build a better, healthier relationship with fear so that it does what it is designed to do - help us stay alive.

PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Genres: Psychology, Science, Audiobook

CD-ROM

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Yaaresse]

DNF @ 20%.

I know you have to love a subject to put in the work for a Doctorate in it, but this presenter give the feeling of someone who found a way to justify her hobby and convince herself that "everyone" feels the same way she does about "fun scary" things. And pimp her book every other lecture. Aside from the ongoing self-aggrandizing and attributing her pet theories to the entire population, she's grating and almost painful to watch. (Maybe she IS a zombie?). This whole thing is just not up to usual Great Course Standards.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: If you expect this audio course to cure you of your abnormal fear of (fill-in-the-blank) then forget it. Any help she offers along those lines consists of describing (in a very general way) how certain therapies work. Maybe you could look for a therapist who does that stuff. Otherwise the course is providing general information on fear. She does a really good job of it.

This audio course was a lot better than the one given by Professor Lawrence Ian Reed, "Understanding Human Emotions". I encourage you to do a comparison of the voices and you'll hear it. I think Professor Margee Kerr gives less information than Professor Reed, but I was able to absorb more of what she did provide.

The audio course starts off with fun stuff. Why to people want to be afraid? They ride rollercoasters, visit haunted houses, etc. Then she gets into more of an analysis of why we have a fear reaction at all. How does it come about? She gets into specific fears. Then she seems to want to get into current events. I wasn't too happy with that, but she kept everything general... just hinting. Finally she winds up with some therapeutic approaches to abnormal fear. That was interesting too.

I wouldn't mind listening to the audio course again.

Contents
Lect 01 What Is Fear (27:55)
Lect 02 Why Do People Want to Be Scared (32:13)
Lect 03 How We Sense Fear (30:17)
Lect 04 Understanding Specific Phobias (33:24)
Lect 05 How We Learn to Fear (29:08)
Lect 06 Why We Feel Afraid-The Science of Emotion (28:59)
Lect 07 The Function and Meaning of the Scary Story (27:20)
Lect 08 Monster as Metaphor (29:02)
Lect 09 Fear of Criminal and Deviant Behavior (28:41)
Lect 10 Fear of Confinement (30:30)
Lect 11 Fear of Crowds (30:11)
Lect 12 Facing Fears as a Nation (26:53)
Lect 13 Fears for Our Kids (27:23)
Lect 14 How Avoiding Risk Can Increase Fear (28:12)
Lect 15 Fear of Cybercrime (28:34)
Lect 16 Fear of Pandemics (27:36)
Lect 17 Fear of Climate Change (29:55)
Lect 18 Fear of Corrupt Government Officials (28:14)
Lect 19 Fear of the Supernatural (28:56)
Lect 20 How Society Shapes Our Fears of Death and Dying (27:18)
Lect 21 Confronting Our Own Mortality (27:06)
Lect 22 Understanding Trauma and Fear (28:12)
Lect 23 Managing Fear with Mindfulness (27:53)
Lect 24 Using Fear to Fight Fear (28:38)

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did have a lot of time to finish this book. So I couldn't listen to the whole thing. But the parts I did listen to were very interesting and informative.

I listened to the audio version of this book and the quality of the recording was very good.

[Johannes Bertus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beyond the first few lectures much of this course is not about fear per se but things like crowds and confinement that are very tangentially linked to the topic. The early chapters about the functioning of fear are fascinating, though.