WHAT IS FEAR?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 829, 21 April 1910, Page 2

WHAT IS FEAR?

Mr. P'krnand Mazadk, in an article published in L,a Revue, asks, ‘‘ What is fear ?” and enters into some curious details, from a medical point of view, and otherwise, as to the nature of this strange feeling before anticipated pain or unknown danger, which we have all experienced. He asks: “Is there a difference between fear and fear, or is there such a thing as fear and phobia, and, again, is all fear a mere malady ? How are we to explain the terror of such a man as Augustus, the victim of Actium, and how many other famous commanders such as Turenne, Napoleon and Ney, have had a shiver at the beginning of a battle. “A coward is he,” said Ney, “who boasts that he never was afraid ?” Mr Madaze applied to various celebrites for their opinions, and one of the first was Professor Ballet, of the Hotel Dieu, of Paris. He says : “The subject is one of ordinary psychology and pathology, but of duplex nature which it is difficult to explain at a moment’s notice. When we say fear we say apprehension of danger, an apprehension that is often vague, uncertain; like that which we experience at night in the darkness in a deserted part of the country. Sometimes it is not so instinctive, but reasoned out, as when we are in the presence of an imminent peril. Can fear be combated? A distinction must be made. There is the instinctive, sentimental fear, and, so to speak, the intellectual fear in the presence of a known danger. The second kind may be reduced to a small ■ matter or to nothing—pathological cases. Physiological fear can be combated with success, but it always remains true that the strong are less subject to fear than

the weak.” M. Sicard, who is a professor at the facult}' of medicine, considers fear or courage to be the result of temperament, training, and thought. Fear can be partially eradicated by reasoning and education, but it will never be overcome in its most acute form, namely, the instinct of self-pre-servation. The conclusion is that it Is far from being unanimously admitted that fear is a ridiculous malady, or one of which one need be ashamed.