Sept. 27: Angst: Origins of Anxiety and Depression

Science Writers in New York presents

An evening with author
Jeffrey P. Kahn, M.D.
Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Weill Cornell School of Medicine

discussing his forthcoming book

“Angst: Origins of Anxiety and Depression” (Oxford University Press, November 2012)

Date: Thursday, September 27, 2012

Time: 6:00-8:00 PM

Location:  Weill Greenberg Center, 2nd Floor
Conference Rooms AB (Selma Rubin Conference Center)
1305 York Avenue (at 70th Street)
New York, NY 10065

Please join us for an enlightening and anxiety-reducing discussion, Q&A, and light refreshments.

Angst proposes the novel evolutionary theory that common anxiety and depressive disorders are actually primeval sociobiological instincts now out of context in modern civilization. The theory focuses on five specific and officially accepted anxiety and depressive subtypes that form the majority of careful psychiatric outpatient diagnoses. Panic Anxiety, for example, calls us to return to the herd when we stray geographically or emotionally, and Social Anxiety calls us to lower our social rank in response to otherwise gratifying recognition.

The second part of this book explores the interaction of these “instinctive syndromes” with the development and current state of human civilization. Kahn develops substantial support for his theory from existing clinical research on diagnosis, phenomenology, epidemiology and treatment; biological research on neurotransmitters, neuroscience, social psychology, and ethology (not to mention jokes, quotes, cartoons, song lyrics and bad puns).

RSVP to http://swiny.pandaform.com/pub/e7f0qb/new

Admission: free to SWINY Members; $10 for non-members

(NOTE: Journalists may request an advance galley proof download from NetGalley at

http://www.netgalley.com/index.php?module=reviewer&func=reviewerGalleyDetails&rev=18223)

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