Emotions are the most powerful things we ever meet - they wreak havoc where it matters most - in our innermost private lives. This book assumes from the outset that we should be in control of them, not them controlling us. It traces a logical, straightforward path through the emotional tangles which beset us - rage, violence, personality disorders, anorexia, panic attacks, addictions, divorce, war - showing clearly how to overcome them. Neither academic psychiatry nor science allows us even to have emotions, let alone intentions or choices - we need a revolution to get these academics to see sense.

Bob Johnson is a consultant psychiatrist who established his reputation as an expert in the treatment of Personality Disorders through his work from 1991 to 1996 in the Special Unit in Parkhurst Prison for exceptionally dangerous and disturbed prisoners, too violent for Broadmoor. While there he reduced the level of violence by 920/0, the consumption of tranquillisers by 950/0, and no alarm bells were rung for 3 years - a unique record for any maximum security wing anywhere in the world. His work has been widely reported - it formed the basis of a documentary investigation by Panorama on BBCl on 3 March 1997, which lead to the James Nayler Foundation which he co-founded with his wife Sue.