Constructing Panic: The Discourse of Agoraphobia

Capps, Lisa; Ochs, Elinor

ISBN 10: 0674165497 / ISBN 13: 9780674165496

Published by Harvard University Press, 1997

May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0674165497I4N00

Synopsis:

Meg Logan has not been farther than two miles from home in six years. She has agoraphobia, a debilitating anxiety disorder that entraps its sufferers in the fear of leaving safe havens such as home. Paradoxically, while at this safe haven, agoraphobics spend much of their time ruminating over past panic experiences and imagining similar hypothetical situations. In doing so, they create a narrative that both describes their experience and locks them into it. Constructing Panic offers an unprecedented analysis of one patient's experience of agoraphobia. In this novel interdisciplinary collaboration between a clinical psychologist and a linguist, the authors probe Meg's stories for constructions of emotions, actions, and events. They illustrate how Meg uses grammar and narrative structure to create and recreate emotional experiences that maintain her agoraphobic identity. In this work Capps and Ochs propose a startling new view of agoraphobia as a communicative disorder. Constructing Panic opens up the largely overlooked potential for linguistic and narrative analysis by revealing the roots of panic and by offering a unique framework for therapeutic intervention. Readers will find in these pages hope for managing panic through careful attention to how we tell the story of our lives.

About the Authors: Lisa Capps was Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Elinor Ochs is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jerome Bruner was University Professor at New York University.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Constructing Panic: The Discourse of ...
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication Date: 1997
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket