A graduate of Barnard College and Columbia University's Graduate Faculties where she received her M.A. in 18th Century English Literature, Erica Jong also attended Columbia's graduate writing program where she studied poetry with Stanley Kunitz and Mark Strand. In 2007, continuing her long-standing relationship with the university, a large collection of Erica’s archival material was acquired by Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library, where it will be available to graduate and undergraduate students. Ms. Jong plans to teach master classes at Columbia and also advise the Rare Book Library on the acquisition of other women writers’ archives. Fear of Flying – Erica Jong". Penguin Reading Guides. Penguin Books. Archived from the original on January 14, 2010 . Retrieved January 23, 2010. Transcends being a woman’s book and becomes a latter-day Ulysses, with a female Bloom stumbling and groping, but surviving.”

Erica Jong was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature. She has also received Poetry magazine's Bess Hokin Prize, also won by W.S. Merwin and Sylvia Plath. In France, she received the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence and in Italy, she received the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature. The City University of New York awarded Ms. Jong an honorary PhD at the College of Staten Island.Is this a book only a young writer could write? Is there anything in the book that embarrasses you now? this is the first flying phobia book I've read and also the first phobia book I've read, so I can't say that I'm familiar with the literature. the bulk of this book is dedicated to the author's "strengthening exercise," which has the aviophobe "link flight situations to a moment of empathic connection." so, for example, the person who fears flying would choose a memory of a moment of empathic attunement with a loved one (staring into a loved ones eyes for instance) and then pair this memory with the feared situation (turbulence mid flight or any other event leading up to or during a flight--maybe driving to he airport if that provokes anxiety) and do this exercise multiple times a day in the days before a flight and then during the flight if anxiety symptoms persist. see http://www.fearofflying.com/photos/. the technique derives from stephen porges' research on the social engagement system (SES), which basically says that in the moment of empathic attunement, oxytocin is released, which inhibits the stress/fear/fight-or-flight response. there's also lots of helpful information about how flight works, encouraging facts and perspectives about the safety of flying, and other techniques to try (grounding and relaxation exercises, e.g.) that all work together to create a pretty good comprehensive self-help manual for fear of flying. Five years of marriage had made me itchy for all those things: itchy for men, and itchy for solitude. Itchy for sex and itchy for the life of a recluse. I knew my itches were contradictory—and that made things even worse. I knew my itches were un-American—and that made things stil l worse. It is heresy in America to embrace any way of life except as half of a couple. Solitude is un-American. It may be condoned in a man—especially if he is a ‘glamorous bachelor’ who ‘dates starlets’ during a brief interval between marriages. But a woman is always presumed to be alone as a result of abandonment, not choice. And she is treated that way: as a pariah. There is simply no dignified way for a woman to live alone. Oh, she can get along financially perhaps (though not nearly as well as a man), but emotionally she is never left in peace. Her friends, her family, her fellow workers never let her forget that her husbandlessness, her childlessness—her sel f ishness , in short—is a reproach to the American way of life. The harshest criticism has always been that Isadora is self-absorbed. I think our culture says that women who wonder about their own fulfillment aren’t doing what women should do —which is take care of everyone else. We don’t seem to criticize male protagonists for probing their own psyches. But women are held to a different standard. We are supposed to be caregivers both emotionally and psychically. It’s very hard to break out of that mindset. But how can women become important writers if they are thought to be unfeminine when they look into the female mind? The “extraordinary” #1 New York Times–bestselling classic about women and marriage, “ at once wildly funny and very wise” ( Los Angeles Times).

A picaresque, funny, touching adventure of Isadora Wing…on the run from her psychoanalyst husband, in quest of joy and her own true self.” Women seem much freer today than they were in 1973. Why do you think Isadora’s dilemmas still have relevance? How was Isadora shaped by her mother and sisters? Do you think her mother’s advice to eschew the ordinary has caused her pain or happiness? Erica Jong grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and attended Barnard College, where she majored in writing and literature, and she later received her M.A. in eighteenth-century English literature from Columbia University. She left halfway through the Ph.D. program to write her groundbreaking first novel, Fear of Flying, which went on to sell 20 million copies worldwide. She is also the author of many award-winning books of poetry, novels, and non-fiction including Sappho’s Leap, Fanny, Any Woman’s Blues, and Fear of Fifty. She lives in New York City and Connecticut. Her work has had a major impact on women’s lives all over the world. Isadora seems to feel most free when she’s experiencing sexual pleasure and when she’s writing. What’s the connection between these two aspects of her world?Soar: The Breakthrough Treatment for Fear of Flying is a great read for anyone who wants to face their fear of flying at a psychological level. If you feel little reassurance from the statistical improbabilities of air disasters and want to learn how to practically resolve your anxieties, this is the book for you. Mead, Rebecca (April 14, 2008). "The Canon: Still Flying". The New Yorker . Retrieved January 23, 2010. Be kind to your behind.’ ‘Blush like you mean it.’ ‘Love your hair.’ ‘Want a better body? We’ll rearrange the one you’ve got.’ ‘That shine on your face should come from him, not from your skin.’ ‘You’ve come a long way, baby.’ ‘How to score with every male in the zodiac.’ ‘The stars and sensual you.’ ‘To a man they say Cutty Sark.’ ‘A diamond is forever.’ ‘If you’re concerned about douching . . .’ ‘Length and coolness come together.’ ‘How I solved my intimate odor problem.’ ‘Lady be cool.’ ‘Every woman alive loves Chanel No. 5.’ ‘What makes a shy girl get intimate?’ ‘ F emme , we named it after you.’

Before Hannah from Girls, Anastasia Steele from Fifty Shades of Grey, and Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City, there was Isadora Wing, the uninhibited, outspoken protagonist of Erica Jong’s revolutionary novel. First published in 1973, Fear of Flying caused a national sensation, fueling fantasies, igniting debates about women and sex, and introducing a notorious phrase to the English language. Forty years later, Isadora’s honest and exuberant retelling of her sexual adventures—and misadventures—continues to provoke and inspire, and stands as an iconic tale of self-discovery, liberation, and womanhood. With provocative cover art by illustrator Noma Bar, this special fortieth-anniversary edition will introduce a new generation of women to Jong’s pioneering novel.

Mention that other people on the same flight might have similar flying anxieties. You can also explain that, although there is not a zero per cent chance you will encounter a catastrophic situation, the probability is minimal as thousands of aeroplanes fly every day, but there are hardly any incidents. You can be realistic while being reassuring simultaneously. Reducing their belief that flying is scary by explaining probability like this can be helpful."