The Narrowing: Tracing Anxiety’s Path Through the Body

An exploration of the connection between anxiety and the body by a clinical psychologist, drawing from the latest research as well as historical and cultural insights through time, arguing that only through understanding anxiety’s role in our lives can we transform it into resilience

Almost all of us are intimately familiar with anxiety, and with its increasing hold on our minds, our hopes and plans, and our bodies. But how well do we really understand it, and what can we do to transform it into something new--into resilience, or courage, or creativity?

In this extraordinary book, Dr. Alexandra Shaker, a clinical psychologist, takes us on a journey through the body--from brain to blood to heart to guts--to examine the connections between our emotional, psychological, and physical lives. She unravels what the body can teach us about anxiety, and what we can learn from our long cultural history of the anxious impulse.

Melding psychology, neuroscience, history, and literature, she considers why--despite all the checklists and therapies and scientific advancements--we are still struggling to outrun our oldest terrors, and how a new approach accepting anxiety as part of the human condition can help build resilience.

Dr. Alexandra Shaker is a clinical psychologist with a background across inpatient and outpatient treatment settings. She has worked with individuals who suffer from a range of mental illnesses including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and personality disorders. Dr. Shaker received her PhD in clinical psychology from the New School, and she conducted her doctoral research at the prestigious Brief Psychotherapy Research Program. She completed her clinical training at Columbia University Medical Center / New York Presbyterian Hospital and went on to secure a postdoctoral fellowship at The Motherhood Center of New York.