Techniques for assuaging or suppressing the entrenched fear
Social living
Application of the hypothesis to effective living
In Conclusion
Review Paper – A Century of Psychoanalysis
References
About the Author
FEAR PSYCHOLOGY
George J Cole
Preamble
It is not at first obvious that much human behavior suggests the presence of a pervasive non-specific fear that must be constantly dealt with, but consider the following:
In recent years the German word “angst” has been adopted by many English speakers to refer to a feeling of anxiety or unease. This use is referred to and the idea extended in a Wikipedia article of December 1, 2012:–
“It (angst) is used in English to describe an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety or inner turmoil. The term Angst distinguishes itself from Furcht (German for fear) in that Furcht is a negative anticipation regarding a concrete threat while angst is a (possibly) non-directional emotion… The article goes on to mention Existentialist philosophy and refers to the originator of Existentialism, Kierkegaard, using the Danish word Angest to describe a “profound and deep seated spiritual condition of insecurity and fear in the free human being”. He felt it as his fear of failing his responsibility to God. The article also has a reproduction of the famous painting “The Scream” by Edvard Munch who tried to represent ‘an infinite scream passing through nature’.
Literature provides useful examples of anxiety. Authors of fiction often display a special intuitive ability, and Tolstoy wrote an interesting paragraph about his protagonist Pierre in “War and Peace” (Penguin Classics 1982 Part 5 Chap 1):
“Sometimes he remembered having heard how soldiers under fire in the trenches and having nothing to do, try hard to find some occupation the more easily to bear the danger. And it seemed to Pierre that all men were like these soldiers, seeking refuge from life: some in ambition, some in cards, some in framing laws, some in women, some in playthings, some in horses, some in politics, some in sport, some in wine and some in government service. [Politics and government service occupations were, in Tolstoy’s time, the hobbies of the aristocracy rather than their careers present author’s comment]. ‘Nothing is without consequence and nothing is important: it’s all the same in the end. The thing to do is to save myself from it all as best I can’ thought Pierre, ‘not to see it, that horrible it”’.
Tolstoy’s term “refuge from life” seems to mean in the context “refuge from life’s fears”. His “it” could be interpreted as some sort of threat.
Aldous Huxley in a moment of incisiveness, referred to humanity’s habitual engagement in “continuous repetitive distractions”. Distractions from what? Although it does not directly refer to anxiety it seems to, and it is close to Tolstoy’s analysis. Also we are reminded of the expression “killing time” which refers to accepting a normally unattractive or pointless activity in preference to having nothing to do. It seems to suggest that time (life-time) is tolerable only if we always have “something to do”, something distracting.
Perhaps evidence of deep-seated human fear is provided by religion. It occurred in primitive cultures, and the religious beliefs of such peoples as the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Norsemen are well documented. Religion is prominent in most communities of the present day. It fantasizes entities that have the power to provide a secure future for the believers if they do certain things in return. The return favor in early societies was sometimes the “sacrifice” (killing) of some of their own people, the message being “Save us in return for taking these”. This utterly selfish behaviour suggests the depth of their fear. Other propitiations involved worship and ritual. Religions in general offer immortality in the form of a new life in another place. This suggests that fear of not surviving is the basic fear and religion guarantees survival.
The fantasized entities (gods) usually take human form and possess human emotions. They can be cruel and unjust yet sympathetic and protective if the people are obedient. More usually in earlier times there was a family of gods with a father and or mother and their offspring. Indeed they resembled human families in the way that infants and children see them and need them for their protection and love. The need for parental protection and reassurance is consistent with intrinsic constant fear. The term “god fearing” suggests that some worshipers transfer their fear of life to fear of a god with whom they can negotiate. Apart from the security offered by religion there are many repetitive distractions available. The frequent attendance at worship gatherings, the regular prayers, the manipulation of strings of beads and so on.
Another fantasy that some people have managed is the belief that the future can be foreseen and trouble avoided by magical means. A random selection of magic cards for example can be interpreted – for a professional fee – to reveal future triumphs or dangers. Certain types of events and certain numbers provide a fee-free prediction of danger for the believers. A black cat crossing one’s path presages danger in parts of the “Western World” and the number 13 is frightening. The number 4 is the feared one in Japan. An intelligent and educated Japanese man holding a responsible job, told of how he believed that a particular day of each month was dangerous for him. As that day approached he became increasingly nervous, reaching a state of severe anxiety when it arrived. Thereafter he experienced pleasant tranquility until the approach of the dangerous day the following month. Japanese society tends towards superstition and this man’s behaviour could be explained as a socially acceptable attempt to take control of the anxiety by ritualizing his emotions according to his own devising. The painful anxiety followed by tranquility was more acceptable than a constant lower order anxiety. Perhaps the cyclic system he arranged has some connection with the cyclic moods of bipolar disorder.
It may also be relevant that English speaking people frequently express an apology in terms of a fear, such as ‘I am afraid that I won’t be able to attend the meeting tomorrow”, or ‘I’m afraid I didn’t bring my umbrella’ or ‘I’m afraid I can’t agree with you in that’. The expression is understood to indicate that the speaker is hardly concerned about the matter and wishes the listener to be likewise unbothered, when in fact both of them might well be unsettled by something that upsets the even tenor of their lives.
The origin of the non-specific fear
We associate the painful emotion of fear with danger. For the present purpose danger can be regarded as a state that threatens damage and/or pain to body or mind. It is usually perceived before fear is felt, but a sense of danger can be instinctive as when a child fears the dark. Adult panic also seems to have an instinctual component. Anxiety is a weaker emotion that anticipates the fear of a possible future danger.
It seems likely that fear is a fundamental emotion and we should therefore seek its origins early in the evolution of life. One of the current scientific ideas of how life began (whether on Earth or somewhere else) envisages a primeval pond or sea containing small molecules. These were formed by combinations of various atoms including those of carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen. Under the influence of some form of energy, for example lightning, these molecules combined to form a larger molecule that had the unique ability of attaching to more of the small ones and making a replica of itself. This replica detached and floated away and in turn also made replicas of itself and so on.
An attractively written extended account o
f this proposition is to be found in the early pages of Richard Dawkins’ book “The Selfish Gene”. The description of the process goes on to say that some of the replicators did not always make perfect copies of themselves and this was the beginning of variation in life forms. Aggregation of “replicators” occurred and more complicated entities came into being, and so on until living cells formed, and beyond that the building of multi-cellular organisms, and ultimately all life forms including humans. These aggregated replicators are the pieces of DNA, the genes, and it is they that construct the living entities of each successive generation. The achievements of “genetic engineering” in which selected bits of DNA can be transferred from one species to another, show that all life is based on the DNA molecule. This indicates that all living things have the same ancestor – the original replicating molecule (or molecules, if the initial replication happened more than once).