Rebecca A. Ward. The Paper Tiger Syndrome. Original Blueprint Press, 2022.

The Paper Tiger Syndrome presents ideas that could help bring about a greater mental or psychological health for some people. It is subtitled How to Liberate Yourself from the Illusion of Fear, but that subtitle is a bit misleading. First, the book goes well into other personal problems besides fear, and, second, the subtitle suggests a kind of New Age “it’s all maya-illusion,” but the book is a bit more realistic than that.

The book acknowledges that sometimes fear is real. There is an ancestral “fight or flight” (or freeze) reaction we naturally have to real threats. I recall hearing that emotions are good servants but poor masters. Our problems with fears come from our inability to overcome the emotion when it tries to master us.

Perhaps the strongest and most original point The Paper Tiger Syndrome makes is how our nervous system connects to our brain and our impulsive reactions. Many times fears and other emotions strike our nervous system and organs connected to it and never really make it to our brains or minds. Much of the book, then, consists of exercises to overcome such impulsive reactions by methods of self-control. Throughout the book, the author, a counselor, tells stories of clients who overcame various problems through analysis and exercises. The exercises are both mental and physical.

In a fight, flight, or freeze situation, the primitive brain is in charge. When you feel secure, the higher-order thinking brain is back in charge. Your goal is to regulate the nervous system to feel safe even when there’s conflict so that you can actually speak and think clearly and have an embodied response in the moment. (29)

This is no passive read. It begins with a checklist of possible sources of trauma and ongoing fear. It then challenges to reader to examine him or herself and begin a variety of exercises. Even though the book is not specifically New Age, it does use some New Age language. For example, when it speaks of developing a healthy self-image, it uses the term mantra for positive sayings one should confess.

One of two quibbles this reviewer has with the book is that while the author lists a number of positive sayings, some may not be true for certain individuals. Some expressions such as “it is not my fault” or “I am assertive” may not apply to all people or all situations. Sometimes it is our fault. Some of us are not that assertive. Still, the book notes that the tongue is a significant part of the main nervous system. Even the Bible compares the tongue to the small rudder of a large ship and exhorts us to control what we say (see James 3:2-10).

At one point the author compares her method to a twelve-step program, and there are similarities. Her “higher power,” though, is pretty vague. She is honest and up front about this, but this reviewer could not help think of Nick von Hoffman’s “American Mush God.” She refers to “Infinite Goodness,” which echoes Benjamin Franklin’s “Powerful Goodness,” which he said he meditated upon each day. So much of American self-reliance and optimism goes through Ben Franklin!

That is not to say that The Paper Tiger Syndrome is exactly a self-help book. There are questions and a downloadable workbook that accompany it. The author is a counselor. While she shares her own story in some detail, she also clearly meets with others seeking help. Several times in the book she encourages people who acknowledge certain problems or traumas in their lives to seek professional help (154)

Still, she avers that “No one can heal you better than you” (54). Well, God can because He made you, and professionals can help because of their training and experience. I guess it is like the old joke, “How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?” “One, but the light bulb has to really want to change.” Ah! The human will!

Here are some of the book’s realistic observations. Perhaps if you see yourself in some of these things, the book might be for you.

“The job of our parents—particularly fathers—is to help us feel protected and safe” (50). If our parents did not make us feel that way when we were young, there probably is a tiger that needs to be trained.

“We still have that same threat bias driving us when we’re under stress, scanning for the paper tigers in the grasslands of our imaginations” (117).

One eye-opening observation for me was this: “Resentment happens when we’ve given more of ourselves than we really wanted to give.” (151) Yes, the book is more than just about fear. Again, the author offers some help for us to deal with resentment.

She gives her readers a positive direction:

One could argue that everybody has regrets; we all wish we could have do-overs in life. But I return knowing that , even when things don’t happen the way I hope, it doesn’t diminish my life in any way. It simply means that I’ve been asked to embark on a new and unexpected adventure. (182)

You are in the world right now, doing some job out there that ultimately is intended to help others. From CEO to street sweeper, we are all doing the same job—we are here to help each other. Make your helping count. (166)

A purpose-driven life? That last one alone was worth reading this book for.