Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-12-31
VOLUME XXXVIII.-NUMBER !.
PHASES OF FEAR.
INTERESTING STUDY OF THIS
MORBID IMPULSE.
Many Fears. Says DIR. Hall, Are
Degrading; Others Arc Ennob'
ling-A Brief Review OF Prcva'
lent Causes of Fear.


About two thousand people have
lately made returns of confessing thell
own private fears, and these have
been made the basis Of very careful
and elaborate study which shows some
surprising and also very practical re
suits. OF all the over two hundred
objects feared, insects, mice and rep
tiles lead; then come thunder, dark
ness, ghosts, high winds, fire, water
domestic animals, with death and dis
ease quite low in the scale. This
shows that if Aristotle's definition O.
education is correct-namely, " learn
ing to fear those objects most worthy
of fear"-people are not yet well edu
Gated; for surely insects and mice art
less worthy of fear than disease. I'm
aginary horror of being buried alive
of the end of the world, heights, cloud
forms, ghosts, robbers, ETC., show IA list
of phobias which is truly amazing.
One curions feature is that the very
strongest fears are never told, even to
the most intimate friends They
make us nervous and irritable, and
yet they are never mentioned even to
parents. This if particularly unfortu'
nate because many of them are most
absurd and ridiculous and could easily
be removed.
Another curious tact is that girls
enumerate three times as many fears
as boys; the latter are most timid
from eleven to fifteen; the former
from fifteen to eighteen. Again,
everybody has certain chronic fears
even those who disclaim them. All,
at least, fear disgrace, calamity, God
or dishonor; and many otherwise per-
fectly normal people have very pecul-
lar fears that are distinctly morbid.
Excessive fear is degrading, restricts
freedom of action, modifies careers,
and some children, especially if they
are feeble, are a prey to scores OF ter
rors that keep them from going into
the dark, being alone, riding, SWIM
ming, and perhaps even going out Of
doors.
Some fear is, of course, necessary,
for it may be defined as anticipatory
pain. Again we are most interested
in objects that we are just ceasing to
fear; so that one object of education
should be, not to eliminate fear, but to
rightly direct it and gauge its inten.
sity and use its tonic. Higher forms
of fear are always substituted for the
lower, and if man were without fear
he would not only fail TO survive, but
would lose wealth Of motive power.
Once more, we fear God better because
we have feared thunder. Fear is sup
planted by reverence, and, as love of
natural objects gradually casts out
fear, education progresses. Excessive
timidity in children is such a calam.
ity that the old English service book
has prayer that our children be
not poltroOns.
Fear has its own symptoms 20
sharply marked that Brown-Sequard
thought he could inoculate its mi.
crobe. 1t is dominant in delirium
tremens, and has its art as in Poe
Hoffman and Wiertz. The timid dc
not resist disease, and fear seems to
invite it. Some experts in nervous
diseases always question their patients
as to their fears. Fear makes people
selfish as few other things do.
Let us glance at few of the most
widespread of the excessive fears:
Fear of High Places and Falling
Many fear to look down high places,
dread elevators, cannot climb, dread to
sleep in high rooms in hotels, fear
stairs, cannot sit in the front row OF
the galleries; some cannot climb
hills or even see them without nausea
while the thought of cracks in high
floor, driving near banks or by mount
ain roads or gorges, of the very idea ol
flying, habitually causes nausea and
dizziness. These panics may haunt
the dreams of people otherwise nor
NAL.
Fear of Losing Points of Compass
Some suffer cons tant fear of losing
sense of direction, dread angles o.
corners, think they are always in
danger of being lost, sweat and fee
faint if they cannot instantly locate
their doors and windows on waking
suddenly; are haunted in strange and
even familiar places with the dread ol
losing their way, forgetting right and
left, and are always confused and
turned round.
Fear of Closeness-Some can never
have their doors shut or locked, can
not endure close carriage, feaI
ravines and all narrow places, are even
afraid lest heavy fogs should settle
down and choke them. The thought
of snakes suggests smothering, and
even hot weather may do the same
Such people often provide tubes in
their coffins or want tools to dig out
hurled with them. They may ever