The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1907-03-26
TWO QUEER DISEASES
The Fear of Space and the Fear
of Shut-in Places.
Roth EQUALLY lNvETERATE.
They Are Refractory to Remedies,
They Are Recalcitrant to Treatment,
and They Endure For Years and
Often For Whole Lifetime.

Agoraphobia, or fear of open spaces,
Is not nearly as common a malady as
Its antithesis, claustrophobia fear of
shut-in places. Both are curious and
somewhat anomalous states of mind, In
which an aversion, known and admit
ted by the subjects of it to be irration-
al and absurd, nevertheless dominates
conduct, prompts the execution Of IRA
tional acts and renders certain rational
and desirable acts impossible
If / had to speculate on the origin Of
these curious and spurious instincts,
for such they may be termed, should
assign them to the revival of instincts
which existed in full force and had
great biological value In our remote
ancestry, but which in most of us
have long been obsolete. When our
ancestors were arboreal in habit, this
habit was their salvation from extinc-
ton. Feeble in body, destitute of weap-
Ons and of defensive armor, devoid of
means of concealment, their safety
from carnivorous foes lay in the agil-
ity with which they could climb out Of
reach and in the accuracy with which
they could leap from bough to bough
and from tree to tree. Whenever they
descended to the ground they were In
danger. 1t is on the ground that the
greater carnivora pursue their prey,
and, adapted as our ancestors were to
arboreal life, their progress on open
WI mid hur hn
tree tops and most probably less rapid
than that of their principal foes.
Among the tree tops they were secure.
There no enemy could vie with them
in activity or hope to overtake them,
but on the ground they were at a dis
advantage. On the fat they had no
chance against the spring of the pan
Their or the speed and wind of the
wolf, but once let them attain the Sc
curlty of the forest and they could grin
at their enemies below The farther
they ventured from their secure retreat
the greater the peril they were in: the
nearer their refuge the more complete
their sense of security. Since instincts,
using the term in the sense of mental
cravings, become adapted to modes of
life. which in turn they dictate, we
may be sure that In the arboreal stage
of their existence aversion existed to
any extended excursion from their
places of security and refuge. Near to
trees they were In safety; far from
trees they were in continual danger
and therefore in continual uneasiness.
In such a situation they had an abid-
ing and well founded dread and sense
Of impending danger.
This is the state of mind which, as it
seems to me, is reproduced in similar
circumstances in agoraphobia. The
craving of the subject of this malady
is to be near, not trees necessarily, it
is true, but near to some tall, vertical
structure Away from such a struc-
ture he has just the feeling of dread.
of impending danger, of imminent dis
asteri of something dreadful about to
happen that a man would have who |
was walking through jungle infested
by tigers or that a child has when
alone In the dark. / have seen wo-
man affected with agoraphobia get |
er by not only going around by the
wall and touching it all the way, but
herself up against 1t and
at the bare surface. Suffer
ers from this malady cannot cross an
open space. They cannot venture more
than step or two from some vertical
surface. They feel no uneasiness in a
,olonnade, open all around them
thought 1t be. Their reason tells them
hat their dread Is groundless, but rea-
son is powerless against instinct, and
IN imperious instinct shouts danger
n their ears.
The opposite NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
seems to me to reproduce a state of
lffairs of much later occurrence in our
acial history. When arboreal habits
It length began to be abandoned and
'ur anthropoid ancestors began to shell
sr thepselyss Ia Aol!9Ts tgsss IN caves