Fear
Introduction
Fear according to Pine and LeDoux 2016, is a state of subjection, that is, a feeling of threat that an individual experience. The state of fear or anxiety, however defines the behavior of a person in relation to expressions facially, sudden flight, keeping a self-distance, and even change of psychological state. Fear is an inward condition that is generated from the brain areas that is depicted from outside behavior wise. Some researcher state that fear is natural, and innate change of human emotions. They claim that fear involve difference in response to one’s emotion towards biochemical changes.
Fear usually signal individuals on threat of dangers or even the presence of harmful substance in their surroundings. The various symptoms of fear include panic, trauma, phobia, and social fear disorders which tend to be mental health situations. The reactions of fear are classified into biochemical, and emotional reactions. As much as fear is considered to be a situation where an individual is endangered, it is also a survival technique.
When an individual faces a particular threat, their body’s react differently and in particular ways. Physically, some individuals respond by increased rate of sweating, high rate of the heart, and high alertness due to rise on levels of adrenaline. Some individuals interpret the physical reactions as a flight reaction where one’s body gets ready to run away. That particular way of response is referred as a biochemical reaction whose development is evolutionary in nature. That response is usually vital for survival of an individual under threat as it is automatic.
The other reaction to fear is emotionally triggered and fully dependent on the individual in action. As fear involves chemical changes in the brain and in the body in general, different emotions are generated in regard to the situation that the victim experience. That entail also emotions like excitement that are contrary to usual expectations. Despite the fact that physical response can certainly be similar, the effect of fear is felt differently dependent on the individual. Some individual can at all cost avoid the factors that result to feelings of fear which is considered as a negative response.
Fear symptoms
The symptoms of fear vary and manifest both physically and emotionally. Each individual faces fear in different ways but the various signs may be common. The various symptoms include increased heart rate, sudden chest ache, short breaths, body shakes, increased sweating and nausea. Besides the physical condition that people experience when under fear, individuals claim to experience some psychological states such as, fury, overwhelm, and a sense of sudden death.
Some elements of fear are linked to foundational medical situations while others are not. However, a diagnosis is crucial in order to ascertain whether the continuous fear feelings are externally related or medically influenced. The intensity of fear hits differently as in most cases depend on the cause factors or situations that trigger them. Phobia usually, is the common disorder that get related to fear. As unusual or absurd it may sound, individual do experience a disorder on fear of unknown.
According to Fritscher 2020, in situations where individual experience the state of fear only on times that they get scary, the persons who encounter disorders of anxiety do fear that they will encounter fear reaction. These individuals usually feel that the response of fear as negative and reach out to defend such reactions. Some situations of fear normally depict to be phobia. Such fears get directed to certain situations or substances that in real sense never pose danger to anybody. Although individual realize that the fear is not reasonable, they cannot avoid it. As time goes by, the situation gets worse and the reaction to the fear strengthen automatically.
Socially, fear has certain complexities that remain unrealized. These complexities result from different experiences, loss of control over a situation, and traumatic conditions. Some of the suggested triggers or causes of fear may get classified into dangers from the natural environment, the imagination of some situation, visualization of future requirements, and unknown circumstances. All these situations may not only originate from internal factors and evolutional conditions but also learned or related to individual relationships.
Frankenstein
In her book, ‘Frankenstein’ Shelley depicts that every individual experience the fear of unknown, whether they know it or not. She shows that the nature of humans get connected in ways that they want to acknowledge all people in their surrounding and everything therein. Therefore, when these people encounter situations they cannot understand, their immediate response is still fear. That kind of fear Shelley outlines to be xenophobia.
In the book, Shelley introduces a character who goes to college and joins the anatomy. Due to his interest in anatomy, he comes up with a monster out of technology. In that situation, fear of unknown sets in him. The character does so without acknowledgment of his innate fear. Once the beast is alive, the doubt of unknown chips in as he tries not to share his new modification. The fear grows as he retreats from sharing the information with anyone. He acknowledges his concern as he lacks the option of what action to take with the monster.
Monsters can incorporate the fears of the human being, and the society, in general, indicates Cohen on his Monster essay. Monsters usually get perceived to cause anxiety in communities. These societies can create them and fail to recognize them as they reflect different impacts. However, these monsters regularly change over time as the culture of the society changes. The beast that the character in the book ‘Frankenstein’ creates is generally viewed as a society cultural monster as it depicts the fear of the unknown.
Different situations do show different perceptions to fear of the unknown. For instance, some colors, such as red, get perceived to represent aggressive situations or extraordinary things. The unknown that color situation is showed as something that is bad and should get avoided in all circumstances. Many people have created their monsters or even learned from time to time, which represents the unknown. These monsters are brought to life by particular people who probably spend their lives running from them.
Some of the monsters that people create in today’s society can be related to the beast that the character in Frankenstein creates. Many people generate fear for somethings that cannot get predicted, and those who create it, lack knowledge of such worries. People get afraid of these fears because they never understand how the monsters they create work, their abilities physically and mentally, and lack basic knowledge about them. These factors cause the fear of unknown to humans and society in general. Many people typically have different expectations from what they find once the fear got created. Some have proper expectations out of these monsters but turn against them over time.
However, according to Freud’s theory of anxiety, he distinguished between objective and neurotic fears. He stated that real concerns are externally related to or caused by external factors. He further explored the horror that got created from no ground, yet they got focused on particular situations. In today’s times, this fear gets referred to phobia, that is, the fear of the unknown. As much as Freud’s reasoning on terror got based on sexual factors, that’s not the case in today’s world.
Conclusion
Fear can be created, learned, or result from some foundational mental health conditions. The fear or anxiety, whether known or as a result of unknown things, gets triggered from external or internal threats. Some studies show fear as a representation of stress in different dimensions. From the theories developed on suspicion also show that thought of concern is the central or core point to understanding mental problems.
references
Becca Mead (2017) Cultural Fears Behind the Monster. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/@becca.mead2017
Freud Sigmund (1917) Introductory lectures on Psycho-analysis
Jerry Kennard (2008) Freud 101: Psychoanalysis. Retrieved from: https://www.healthcentral.com/article/psychoanalysis
Joseph E. LeDoux and Daniel S. Pine (2016) Using Neuroscience to Help Understand Fear and Anxiety: A Two-System Framework
Lisa Fritscher (2020) What is Fear? Retrieved from: https://www.verywellmind.com/the-psychology-of-fear