Frightful Stages: From the Primitive to the Therapeutic

Frightful Stages examines moments of stage fright, performance anxiety, anxiety in psychotherapy (as seen by both therapist and client), and anxiety in everyday interpersonal relations. It analyzes reverence, self-doubt, envy, creative blocks, and terror in the works and lives of ordinary people as well as such celebrities as Bessie Smith, Thomas Merton, Barbra Streisand, Federico Fellini, and John Ashbery. Frightful Stages will appeal to a diverse audience, including therapists, clients, social theorists, cultural anthropologists, performers, and writers.