Fear is a basic human emotion, but it shouldn’t rule a person’s life. Everyone feels fear at certain times. It is a primal feeling that can dominate our being. Nothing is as defining as mental anxiety. Fear paralyses us. Makes us ill. But it can also drive us to peak performance. Fear opens the gates of the human psyche for numerous mental disturbances: Panic, phobias and personal worries, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders and addictions. What is the nature of fear? What function does it have? How can fear be utilised or overcome? Why do people seek out fear by watching horror films or by participating in extreme sports? In their new book, Georg Psota and Michael Horowitz provide answers to these questions and present a way out of fear.

We live in a world where corruption, deception and violence, relentless careerism and unlimited greed are accepted by nearly everyone. Barely anyone asks: Do things have to be this way? What happened to an individual and collective sense of responsibility? Why do less and less people have a sense for injustice? Rotraud A. Perner embarks on a quest to find out why the courage to take on responsibility seems to be lost. She analizes the causes and describes a path to a better, more compassionate world. Perner not only delivers one of the most fascinating analyses of today’s world, she also points out the purifying power of repentance and the many possibilities of a culture of honesty.