The Fear Paradox: How Our Obsession with Feeling Secure Imprisons Our Minds and Shapes Our Lives

Fear, Contemporary Society, and the Consequences of Security

Fear has grown into the single greatest threat to humanity and collective survival. This book aims to set us free from fear.

Over the last five hundred years, life for the average human being has changed dramatically—plagues no longer wipe out entire families, and no longer do we empty our chamber pots into the street. Nope, not today. But, western progress has shown that no matter how many dangers we neutralize, new ones emerge. Now we remain at the mercy of an invisible enemy—fear. Our wellbeing suffers and our imaginations are stifled. But why?

Safety not guaranteed. For years clinical psychologist Dr. Frank Faranda, PhD, observed a state of fearfulness in his patients—a primordial emotion that relentlessly drives us toward avoidance, alienation, hypercriticism, hyper-control, narcissism and eventually, depression and anxiety. He began to wonder how embedded these fears might be in contemporary society.

A culture of fear. Driven by a deep insecurity, society is paradoxically promoting fear, the very thing it runs from. As a result, fear is entrenched in culture, creating new dangers, and isolating ourselves from one another. That’s Faranda’s Fear Paradox: even though fear has a prime directive to keep us safe, it has grown into the single greatest threat to humanity and collective survival.

Fear not. It is time, Faranda believes, for each of us to shine a light on our deepest fears, and to examine with fresh eyes the society that our fear is creating.