Theories of Anxiety

This book is an up-dated version of the original text, which results from eighteen years of continuing research and reflection by Fischer. His work has three purposes: 1) to acquaint the student of psychology with a variety of approaches to the phenomenon of anxiety; 2) to explore the reasons for the fact that most psychologists seem to concur as to the significance of anxiety, but are completely at odds when describing its constitutive aspects; and 3) to make an initial effort at surpassing this paradoxical situation by reawakening the naive, everyday experience of anxiety. Chapter 12, which was not part of the original text, presents a summary of Fischer's current thinking about anxiety. Co-published with the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology.