Thus one feels half a man when in the grip of fear. It is a product of morbid imagination where every thing is foul, filthy and facinorous. Fear threatens personality, which is infused with the will to survive, and thus inclined to protect itself against external pressures. When it provokes the defensive mechanism of personality, it becomes rational fear, which brings out the best in a person, and acts as a remedy to neutralise the dread, and checks its further augmentation. The rational fear is like an antidote which, despite being a poison, acts to destroy the effects of poison.
Irrational fear is the ambassador of regression.
Instead of tackling difficult situations, it seeks escape through make-believe. For example, when one is told there is God who is Almighty, the person suffering from irrational fear starts prostrating before Him to qualify for His mercy. He builds around his mind an impenetrable web of faith, which cannot be pierced by reason, and he feels jubilant in this golden cage of superstition. This is what makes ignorance a bliss though it is a fountain of moral insensitivity and degredation. On the contrary, rational fear is inclined to mitigate its depressive effect, and acts as a tool of enquiry.