The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-05-22
AN ANALYSIS OF FEAR.
Camille MeIenRnde Tells why We
Are Afraid of Things.

are AIFHAu OF innings.
From the Chicago Tribune.
An interesting analysis of fear is
contained in an article by Camille Me-
lenande, French psychologist.
Fear of death, he says, may be anal
yzed thus: 1t is obviously the dislike
of the immense shock which we think
is hidden behind the mysterious word
What scares us is the transition
which we vaguely understand from life
to death, the fall in the dark, the vio-
lent shock
We have also the fear of the I'M
known. the fear of pain, the fear of
joy, but at the bottom is always the
anticipation of a shock. We find that
| everywhere in the composition of fear.
1t is the only thing necessary to pro-
duce fear an intense surprise.
The fact that we may be afraid aft
er the danger is over is readily ex-
planned, although apparently it is con-
Trajectory. We merely appreciate the
magnitude of the danger in which we
have been placed and from which we
have escaped, and we go through the
whole event in our minds, imagining
what our sensations would have been.
Then the shock is produced and we
experience fear
The psychologist says that fear is a
sensation which produces certain ply
steal disturbances the rapid beating
of the heart being one, the construction
of the throat another and the paraly-
cation of the limbs a third
But it is the reverse which is true
The man whose heart does not beat
hard cannot be said to be afraid. The
real order of the creation of fear is not
what it is generally held to be.
People usually think that first comes
the vision of the danger, then the emo
ton. and third, corporal disturbances.
In reality, first is the vision of dan
ger, then corporal disturbances and
third and last the emotion.
The question at the root of the pro-
duction of fear is, What causes the
physical disturbances which result in
fear?
The cause of fear is within us. In
deed, if we do not know we are in dan
ger we do not fear. Hence fear be-
comes an idea which is superinduced by
anticipation.
Many people associate fear with the
sense of sight, but the true sense Of
fear is that of the auditory nerve
hearing. We hear a suspicious noise
and that makes US afraid. We do not
understand what produces it.
Sight has extreme little to do with
fear because when we see a thing we
appreciate the precise character of the
danger.
In animals the sense of smell plays
an important role in the development
of fear. They scent danger which they
cannot see.
In this complicated experience of fear
no
of painful emotions is accompanied by
a tendency to run away, 1t is due to
the thought of the expected shock,
which is readily explained when we re-
member that on one side there is fear
of some corporal distress, an ensemble
of organic sensations. This is the first
fact to be observed. On the other side,
fear is instigated by anticipation of a
shock.
Now, when we expect a shock what
happens?
Eavtcly this: Our whole organism
prepares itself for the shock. Every
part of our being assumes the attitude
which is most convenient for repelling
or sustaining it with the least possible
damage.
The arterial, the respiratory and the
muscular systems each modifies itself
so as to render the adaptation as per-
feet as possible.
For this reason there arise the COM
plicated, intricate organic sensations,
of which fear is only the confused ex-
preston.
The hypothesis which have just de-
Quoted demonstrates that human be-
ings, like all other living animals, are
merely the creatures of habit
The absolute adaptation of our envi-
rons constitutes the perfectly normal
state in which to pursue our existence
When this adaptation is without
flaw. when there is no rupture of the
requisite and normal equilibrium, no
shock takes place.