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Cargando... Wish I Could Be There: Notes From a Phobic Life (2007)por Allen Shawn
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. This is not the typical memoir; it's very detailed, almost like a textbook. This guy is really smart, but sometimes I missed how much his disorder affected him emotionally. ( ) Shawn’s examination of his agoraphobia and his family life as a possible “trigger” for his phobia reads like a rather strange blending of introspective analysis, family memories and a textbook spanning the scientific fields of neurosciences, evolution and psychotherapy. Shawn’s personal research journey is far reaching in both scope and time. I found it interesting to learn about the phobias of Emily Dickinson and Hans Christian Anderson, and found Shawn’s account of his twin sister Mary to be a very sad one. Whether Shawn’s phobia can be attributed, even partially, as being inherited from his high-strung father and overprotective mother is used to help connect the memoir side of this book with the science side. While Shawn attempts to come across as candid, his writing is restrained, almost rigid. In Shawn’s own words: ” In writing the book I came to the conclusion that the shame I originally felt at the prospect of writing it was a fear worth conquering. My hunch is that beneath the surface of even the most smoothly functioning lives (and families) there are always fissures – psychological crises, deficits, conflicts. By putting my own worst foot forward, as it were, I mean to challenge our assumptions about what a normal person is.”Overall, an interesting read if you are interesting in reading about a personal struggle to understand and overcome agoraphobia. Notable Quote: Allen Shawn writes about being phobic. How his phobias shape his life, how he's tried to overcome them, and how knowing how his childhood environment shaped them doesn't relieve the tension. Trying to explain how being phobic feels must be like trying to explain what a banana tastes like to someone who has never had the experience. While Wish I Could be There is an explanation, in layman's terms, of the research he's done on phobias, it is also filled with anecdotes of Shawn's experiences. And, it's the story of his family's secrets (Dad had two families) and his twin sister's autism and institutionalization at age 8, among other traumas. Told with care and curiosity, Allen Shawn explains his life as conductor, teacher and composer, all the while coping with his debilitating phobias. Although somewhat academic in places, I liked reading about Shawn and his life. The parts about his twin are almost heart-breaking. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
"Allen Shawn is afraid of heights, water, fields, parking lots, tunnels, and unknown roads. He avoids subways, elevators, and bridges. He is afraid of both closed and open spaces and of any form of isolation--yet this is a memoir of enormous bravery. He is the son of New Yorker editor William Shawn and brother to playwright/actor Wallace Shawn. His twin sister is autistic. His father led a double life that introduced strict taboos to his household. Shawn examines these influences, his father's and mother's phobias, and his own struggle with agoraphobia with generosity, wit, and insight, interwoven with both Freudian psychology and cutting-edge brain research, attempting to decipher the psychological and biological puzzles that have plagued him for so long.--From publisher description."--From source other than the Library of Congress No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)616.85225Technology Medicine and health Diseases Diseases of nervous system and mental disorders Miscellaneous NeurosesClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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