Synopses & Reviews
From the winner of the Edgar Award and the Samuel Johnson Prize, a cultural history of "everyday madness"
The Book of Phobias and Manias is a thrilling compendium of 99 obsessions that have shaped us all, the rare and the familiar, from ablutophobia (a horror of washing) to syllogomania (a compulsion to hoard) to zoophobia (a fear of animals).
Phobias and manias are deeply personal experiences, and among the most common anxiety disorders of our time, but they are also clues to our shared past.
The award-winning author Kate Summerscale uses rich and riveting case studies to trace the origins of our obsessions, unearthing a history of human strangeness, from the middle ages to the present day, and a wealth of explanations for some of our most powerful aversions and desires.
Review
"A page-turner with the authority of history." Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Queen
Review
"Fascinating….Exquisitely detailed and consistently insightful, this is an entertaining guide to humanity's compulsions." Publishers Weekly
Review
"With her eye for evocative period detail, her sensitivity to the quirks and poignancies of human motivation, and her brilliant storytelling skills, Summerscale has taken this corker of a case and made it as gripping as a novel. An engaging, unsettling, deeply satisfying read." Sarah Waters, author of Tipping the Velvet