Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-09-06
Pilots Fear Of Flying
Laid to Hidden Upset
Air Force Believes Phobiu
Needs Psychiotric Care
By Thomos R. Henry


Fear Of flying, likely to appear sud-
denly and without apparent reason In
experienced pilots, is definite psychic
Syndrome.
This is the conclusion of Col. Lucio
E. Cato or the Air Force Medical
Corps, who has just reported his studies
of series Of cases to the Armed Forces
Medical Journal
There appears to be, he says,
basic fear of flying which is common to
all men. In a trained pilot 1t Is sub
merged into the subconscious. The
man himself has no realization Of such
q fear.
Now psychiatry has a long list of
irrational "phobias" - fear Of high
places, of open spaces. Of closed spaces,
of mice. of harmless insects. There is
no logical reason for them. Victims
themselves cannot explain why they
are afraid. These fears may appear
quite suddenly.
Fear Is Transferred.
They are assumed to be an uncon-
Scious expression of accumulated wor-
rieS and conflicts. In many cases
person is afraid of something within
himself which he cannot identify. He
transfers the fear to something tan
gible.
Thus fear of birds may be fear of
failure. 1t is easier, Col. Cato points
out, to transfer these internal fears to
something actually frightening in ones
daily life rather than invent something
of which to be afraid. This, he holds,
is what the uilot does
He simply brings to the surface the
long submerged fear.
This displacement of anxiety from
its original source to other Objects"
he says, lis common enough phenom-
enon and the person may choose either
harmless or q dangerous object to
fear. When the feared object or sit
uation Is harmless or unreal, as an
attack by mythical dragons, it is easy
to recognize that the anxiety must
have another source, usually an in
ternal, unrecognized emotional con-
f1ict. It is more difficult to recognize
that this displacement can occur when
the anxiety is attached to situation
which really is highly dangerous, as in
flying.
"The energies deriving from turbu-
lent and disturbed emotions relating
to others manifest themselves in an
uncomfortable fear of flying. The
origins of the syndrome are to be found
in those conflicts common to all men
the conflicting demands made on
man by his instinctual needs, the in
ternalized authority or superego and
external reality. These basic factors
are interdependent and increased
stress on one affects the others in the
same manner that stress on one link Of
chain affects all its links"
Anger May Be Cause.
The suddenly appearing deadly fear
of the air, he holds, can be considered
a repression on the part of an hitherto
well adjusted individual to more i'm
mature or even infantile behavior. A
fairly common cause, he holds, is re-
sentiment or anger or belief that ones
prestige is being belittled. In the mill
tary service it is particularly difficult
to give overt expression to such feel
. ings. The pilot cannot blow his top
without fear Of disciplinary action. So
he does the same thing subconsciously
with the strange fear reaction. Sb.&
Defiance of authoritative figures"
Col. Cato says. "is possible only for
the few who dare to face the conse-
quences. Most express the disturbance
symbolically by developing ineffective
behavior. or real or imagined physical
symptoms"
Another probable factor, he points
out, is the growing lack of prestige
of the pilot. AS both military and
civil aviation have become more COM
mon he has lost the unique position in
public esteem which he once held and
his job now Is considered routine. The
hurt to his Self-esteem, which he will
not admit even to himself, results in
the suddenly developed fear for which
he can give no explanation. The skilled
probing of the psychiatrist is needed to
discover the subconscious reasons.
When these reasons are uncovered,
he points out. the irrational fear may
disappear quite rapidly.