According to the book’s dust jacket, Jeff Wise is an outdoor adventurer, a small plane and glider pilot, and a contributing editor to Popular Mechanics, Travel & Leisure, and other magazines. Jeff is also a science writer. All of his talents blend to produce the very readable volume, Extreme Fear (Wise, 2009).
Extreme Fear; The Science of Your Mind In Danger is a collection of captivating short stories introducing individuals who survived stressful situations. The landing of a commercial aircraft in the Hudson River by Captain “Sully” Sullenberger is one of the most recent stories recapped in Wise’s work (p. 196). Other stories are retold in greater detail and play a more significant role in the book, but Sully’s unprecedented accomplishment will be fresh in the minds of most readers.
Brain At Odds With Itself
Jeff Wise looks at how the mind reacts in extreme fear to understand how the mind works in everyday situations. He concludes that the mind is not a unified entity; rather, the mind consists of several semi-autonomous structures that are loosely coupled.
Terrifying Tales Illuminate Fear Mechanisms
Wise’s talents as an adventure writer make his narration memorable. He tells terrifying stories in a powerful style. But unlike Stephen King, Wise has a reason to relate each of his stories beyond their shock value. The stories in Extreme Fear are chosen, organized, and presented in a manner which unfold a highly complex, and as of yet poorly understood, human experience. Wise’s stories go well beyond the tales of extraordinary physical strength to include bizarre examples of brain function.
Neuroscience Still In Its Infancy
Neuroscience snippets pepper the book. fMRI studies indicate which structures within the brain play a role in the fear response and which brain structures moderate that response. But the fear-provoking stimuli for these neuroscience studies are contrived. One cannot skydive for the first time with an fMRI scanner attached. Looking at unpleasant photos as part of a research study is not the same as being in a terrifying situation. Neuroscience is still in its infancy.
Predicting One’s Response To Extreme Stress
Extreme Fear does share how the developing field of neuroscience is attempting to apply its techniques to practical problems. Supported by grants from the Navy, Dr. Lilliane R. Mujica-Parodi is attempting to use fMRI’s to predict an individual’s response to real-life terrifying situations. Jeff Wise became a willing volunteer in Dr. Mujica-Parodi’s study. After an fMRI, Jeff was treated to his first skydiving experience (p 13). Jeff’s vital signs were monitored before, during and after the dive. Cortisol samples were taken immediately before and after the dive. In Wise’s case, the fMRI correctly predicted that he would handle a stressful situation appropriately (p. 23).
Epistemology: How We Know What We Know
Extreme Fear unintentionally serves as a mini-Epistemological thesis. The book contains multiple descriptions of well-controlled scientific studies. However, the knowledge of how humans react to terrifying situations comes more from life’s experiences. Science merely provides a footnote to what is known by trainers, adventurers, service men and women, and first responders.
Will Power: Brain At Odds With Itself
The main lesson reinforced by the book is that the brain is multi-faceted. Wise observes that the concepts of courage and will power would have no meaning if the brain were not at odds with itself.
A secondary lesson, which is often not fully appreciated, is that the emotional centers of the brain are capable of learning and can be influenced through adequate training. The conditioning of emotional responses extends back centuries, predating the discovery of the brain structures that underlie them. Training to react appropriately in a dangerous situation is often the key to survival.
Sources:
- Wise, J. (2009). Extreme Fear; The Science of Your Mind In Danger. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN: 978-0-230-61439-0
Richard Walloch - Don't believe me because of my education or professional experience. Believe me because of the evidence and arguments I advance.
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