The record-union., 1898-01-23
FORMS OF FEAR.
SOME AREDEGRADING, OTHERS
ARE ENNoBLING.
Interesting and Lucid Discussion
of the Psychology of
Fear.

made the basis OF a very careful and
elaborate study which shows some sur
prising and also very practical results
OF I'LL the over two hundred objects
feared. insects. mice and reptiles lead.
then come thunder, darkness, ghosts,
high winds, fire, water, domestic ami
mails, With death and disease quite low
i'll .he scale. This shows that if Aris-
totle's definition of education is cor
rect-namely, learning to fear those
objects most worthy of fear"-people
are rot yet well educated; for surely
insects and mice are less worthy of
fear than disease Imaginary horror of
being buried alive, of the end of the
world nights, cloud forms. ghosts, rob-
bers, etc, show list of phobias which
is truly amazing.
One curious feature is that the very
strongest fears are never told even 10
the most intimate friends. They make
US nervous and irritable. and yet they
are never mentioned even TO parents.
This IS particularly unfortunate, be-
cause many of them are most absurd
and ridiculous, and could be easily re-
moved
Another curious fact is that girls
enumerate about 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 laany otherwise perfectly normal
people have very peculiar 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 terrors
that keep them from going into the
dark. baing alone, riding, swimming 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 OBJ
jects that we are just ceasng to fear:
so that one object of education should
be, no. to eliminate fear, but to rightly
direct it and gauge its intensity and
use its tonic. Higher forms of fear are
almost always substituted for the low
er, and if man were without fear he
would not only fail to survive, bu,
would lost wealth Of motive power.
e
we have feared thunder Fear is sup
planted by reverence and, as love of
natural obj cts gradually casts cut fear,
education progresses. Excessive timld-
ity in children is such a calamity that
the old English service book has a
prayer that our children be not pol
troons."
Fear has its own symptoms so sharp
ly marked that BrownSequard thought
he could inoculate its microbe. 1t is
dominant in delirium tremens, and has
its art as in Poe, Hoffman and WiertZ.
! The timid do 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 a 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
galleries. Some cannot climb hills or
even see them without nausea; while
the thought of cracks in high floor,
driving near banks or by mountain
roads or gorges, of the very idea of
flying, habitually causes nausea and
perhaps dizziness. These panics may
haunt the dreams of people otherwise
normal.
Fear of losing points of compass
Some suffer constant fear of losing
sense of direction, dread angles or cor
ncrs. think they are always in danger
of being lost, sweat and feel faint if
they cannot instantly locate their doors
and windows on waking suddenly; are
haunted in strange and even familiar
places with the dread of losing their
way, forgetting right and left, and are
always confused and turned round.
Fear of seness-Some can never
have their doors shut or locked, can
not endure q close carriage, fear ra
vines ard 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 cof-
fins or want tools to dig out buried
With them. They may even dread
odors or cannot bear to wear a ring
people with defective lungs, or espec-
tally effective hearts.
Far Of water-This is almost univer-
sal at some stage of childhood. 1t is
not The dread Of being washed SO much
as padding on the beach. hearing the
noise of the driving near it, and es-
pecially sailing that awakens these
fears. Some think that every rain Will
drown the world, cannot look down
upon the water without an uncontrol-
liable impulse to jump in, or are prone
to imagine themselves drowning. Strong
as this fear is, it is generally overcome
by the opposite love of water. The lat
ter is an almost irresistible passion with
children and there is much to suggest
that it is an echo of the soul of the
earlier and far longer life in the sea,
from which all amphibian and later
land animals gradually developed.
When life on the land was we'll estah-
lshed those most fearing water had
the advantage at a certain stage over
those less timid; but both elements in
normal souls struggle up to a harmon
ious balance, so that we can have all
the pleasures of water with all the
safety of the land.
Wind is a powerful schoolmaster of
the emotions. Some are ALWAYS ex-
cited or depressed, or fancy moaning
animals: cannot sleep if it blows
hard. imagine themselves at sea, and
in extreme cases watch every move
ment Of the boughs a hundred times
a day to see if it is increasing It's
noise most often suggests animals, but
sometimes machinery, battles the sea
or universal dissolution. The wind is
exceedingly real, bringing rain, de-