The infested mind : why humans fear, loathe, and love insects /
Jeffrey Lockwood.
- New York, NY : Oxford University Press, (c)2013.
- 1 online resource (xxi, 204 pages) : illustrations
Includes bibliographies and index.
Prologue: the infestation begins -- The nature of fear and the fear of nature -- Evolutionary psychology: survival of the scaredest -- Learning to fear: little Miss Muffett's lesson -- A fly in our mental soup: how insects push our disgust buttons -- The maggoty mind: a natural history of disgust -- The terrible trio: imagining insects into our lives -- Treating the infested mind: exterminating entomophobia -- Overcoming fear and disgust for fun and profit: the professionals -- The infatuated mind: entomophilia as the human condition -- Entomapatheia: can't we just live and let live? -- Back to the real world: good night, sleep tight or maybe not -- Epilogue: insects as a psychological precipice.
The human reaction to insects is neither purely biological nor simply cultural. And no one reacts to insects with indifference. Insects frighten, disgust and fascinate us. Jeff Lockwood explores this phenomenon through evolutionary science, human history, and contemporary psychology, as well as a debilitating bout with entomophobia in his work as an entomologist. Exploring the nature of anxiety and phobia, Lockwood explores the lively debate about how much of our fear of insects can be attributed to ancestral predisposition for our own survival and how much is learned through individual experi.