Christopher Lane (MHT-089)

Thursday, September 02, 2010



"Gregariousness in itself is charming it's something that one should welcome, the problem occurs when… it's the only option, when it's represented as the most normative state of being, anything that mildly varies from it is considered suspicious, and strikingly in our culture which places so much emphasis appropriately on diversity, this is one of the areas where we're very, strangely, intolerant." —Christopher Lane In this segment, Ken Myers interviews Professor Christopher Lane of Northwestern University about the scientific development of approaches to understanding anxiety, and recent attempts to reduce complex and large existential experiences to more easily handled biological mechanisms. Lane converses about American gregariousness and cultural responses to shyness which restrict the range of behaviors considered normal in such a way to bring enormous pressures on individuals to behave and be a certain way. According to Lane, with the growing number of drugs becoming available to "treat" these behaviors--once considered appropriate responses to strenuous, strange or difficult situations--more thought must be given to the effects of changing understandings of social behavior and experience on mental and physical health and the role of economic forces in driving these changes.	Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness (Yale University Press, 2007)

	Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disord Shyness Mental Health Psychopharmacology

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