'Guide to shyness' shows it's nothing to be ashamed of

We prescribe pills for shyness now, medicalising a quirky, sometimes endearing, all-too human trait, ‘sufferer’ Joe Moran tells Olivia Kelleher.

MODERN society has medicalised shyness.

Doctors prescribe tablets for social anxiety disorder, rather than accept that it is part of the human condition, says Joe Moran, professor of English and cultural history at Liverpool’s John Moores University.