Beyond Fear

Front Cover
Harper Perennial, 2007 - Psychology - 682 pages
Dorothy Rowe shows us how to have the courage to acknowledge and face our fears -- only through courage can we find a sustaining happiness. 'Beyond Fear', first published in 1987, has changed the lives of thousands of people. In this edition, the renowned psychologist Dorothy Rowe examines the changes in the psychiatric system since 1987 in the context of showing how most of our suffering comes from our greatest fear, that of being annihilated as a person, when we shall disappear like a puff of smoke in the wind, never to have existed. We feel this fear whenever others humiliate or belittle us, or whenever we discover a serious discrepancy between what we thought our life was and what it actually is. The greater our fear, the more desperate our defence against it, the most desperate of defences being what psychiatrists call mental disorders. Yet, by knowing ourselves we can go beyond our fear and face life with courage.

About the author (2007)

Dorothy Rowe worked as a teacher and child psychologist in Australia, then took her PhD at Sheffield University. From 1972 until 1986 she was head of the North Lincolnshire Dept of Clinical Psychology. She is now engaged in writing, lecturing and research, and is renowned for her work on how we communicate, and why we suffer.