The psychology of fear: What scares us

By AL PARKER
Special to the Record Eagle

TRAVERSE CITY -- For some it might be heights or snakes or driving across the Mackinac Bridge.

But whatever the cause, everyone is familiar with the heart-pounding, chest-tightening specter of fear.

But, exactly what is this universal emotion and how does it affect the body?
According to Dr. Vincent Cornellier, a clinical psychologist based in Traverse City, fear is an emotional response linked to the anticipation of impending danger. Fear of death is the greatest fear.

"I like to refer to Woody Allen's comment -- 'I'm not afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens,'" said Cornellier, with a smile.

Fear often occurs when a person feels out of control, either physically or emotionally. When fear rises, blood gathers in the large skeletal muscles, such as those in the arms and legs, preparing your body to flee. Blood leaves the face, making a person appear paler. The body freezes for a moment to gauge possible reactions, such as what is the quickest escape route.

"Fear is the anticipation of a threat of some sort," explained Cornellier, who works in a pain clinic and regularly cares for patients dealing with phobias. "Many, many patients become angry because of an injury and we often learn that fear is the emotion that causes that anger."
While the body is reacting, the brain sends out hormones that put the body on alert, which makes it edgy and ready for action. The body focuses on the threat at hand to allow a person to better evaluate the threat and its response.

The physiological cues of fear include a quickening of breathing, a tightening of the throat and chest, perspiration, difficulty breathing, quickened heart rate and a feeling of wanting to flee. At the same time, there can be a flood of anxious thoughts which are seemingly uncontrollable. This intense cycle of fear and worry often paralyzes the individual in a figurative sense.

"The physiology of fear is the same as the physiology of excitement," explained Cornellier. "It's the same hormones -- epinephrine, dopamine, serotonin and others. There's a very thin line between excitement and fear."

That helps explain what attracts people to roller coasters, bungee jumping, skydiving and other adrenalin-producing activities -- including scary movies.

"The more civilized we get, the more we repress our sort of uncivilized nature and one way to release that is through festival occasions, vicariously enjoying horror movies and all sorts of related things," explained Dr. Leon Rappoport, a psychology professor at Kansas State University.

In a study, Rappoport asked people about the films and TV shows they enjoyed watching. Results showed a shift in the age of people who enjoyed horror movies, so popular with teens.
"There is a pleasure that kids experience by exploring unconventional boundaries of these movies," said Rappoport. "It's sort of forbidden territory when horror films come out, and parents or adults say they're not fit for children. It makes them even more attractive."
But for many, watching scary movies is just, well, fun.

"There seems to be this general quality that almost all of us share in enjoying a certain level of threatening stimulation or hazardous stimulation," said Rappoport. "The ability to do something that seems to go beyond the usual range of things."

And no holiday combines fear and excitement more than Halloween.

"Halloween can be a very scary time for children," said Cornellier, an avid Halloween fan. "Parents should be attentive to how their child is handling all of the potentially scary situations. With all the snakes, vampires, ghosts, witches and things, a child may not know how to deal with it."

At the same time, Halloween is a special time for youngsters to enjoy.
"It gives them a chance to take on another personality for awhile," said Cornellier. "They can be Superman or Freddy Krueger for a day."

Psychology of jokes

The reason why we laugh has been the subject of serious academic study, examples being:

Sigmund Freud's "Jokes and Their Relationship to the Unconscious".
Marvin Minsky in Society of Mind.
Marvin suggests that laughter has a specific function related to the human brain. In his opinion jokes and laughter are mechanisms for the brain to learn Nonsense. For that reason, he argues, jokes are usually not as funny when you hear them repeatedly.
Arthur Koestler, in The Act of Creation, analyzes humor and compares it to other creative activites, such as literature and science.
Edward de Bono in "The mechanism of the mind" and "I am right, you are wrong".
Edward de Bono suggests that the mind is a pattern matching machine, and that it works by recognising stories and behavior and putting them into familiar patterns. When a familiar connection is disrupted and an alternative unexpected new link is made in the brain via a different route than expected, then laughter occurs as the new connection is made. This theory explains a lot about jokes. For example:
Why jokes are only funny the first time they are told: once they are told the pattern is already there, so there can be no new connections, and so no laughter.
Why jokes have an elaborate and often repetitive set up: The repetition establishes the familiar pattern in the brain. A common method used in jokes is to tell almost the same story twice and then deliver the punch line the third time the story is told. The first two tellings of the story evoke a familiar pattern in the brain, thus priming the brain for the punch line.
Why jokes often rely on stereotypes: the use of a stereotype links to familiar expected behavior, thus saving time in the set-up.
Why jokes are variants on well known stories (eg the genie and a lamp): This again saves time in the set up and establishes a familiar pattern.
Laughter, the intended human reaction to jokes, is healthful in moderation, uses the stomach muscles, and releases endorphins, natural happiness-inducing chemicals, into the bloodstream.

One of the most complete and informative books on different types of jokes and how to tell them is Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor, which encompasses several broad categories of humor, and gives useful tips on how to tell them, who to tell them to, and ways to change the joke to fit your audience.

Getting Depressed but too afraid to see the ‘crazy-peoples’ doctor?

With the exciting arrival of a new baby, nobody noticed that Mubashara had fallen victim to severe post-natal depression. Only two weeks after giving birth, she slit her wrists with a kitchen knife. She was found lying in a pool of blood by her mother-in-law and was rushed to hospital. Thankfully, the doctors managed to save her life. Her family couldn’t fathom why she would want to kill herself.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t love my baby,” explained Mubashara. “I just suddenly felt so overwhelmed. I would be up all day and night, tending to my daughter, and then doing household chores while she was sleeping. I got stitches during childbirth and they would be hurting constantly, making it difficult to even walk sometimes. Despite this, nobody would even notice that I was in pain. I felt isolated, as if all anyone could think about was the baby and no one cared about me anymore. Then, I would feel guilty about thinking such selfish thoughts. I just began to hate myself and wanted to put an end to my life.” Mubashara eventually managed to overcome her depression with the help of her family and regular doses of anti-depressants. For a few months, she visited a psychotherapist who assisted her in coming to terms with her new role as a mother.

“Women are more likely to get depressed than men because of all the hormonal changes that they go through,” said Dr Uzma Ambareen, clinical director of the Pakistan Association for Mental Health, who trained at Brown University and the University of Columbia in Psychiatry and Neurology and has been with PAMH since 1998. “Their body goes through so many changes during adolescence, pregnancy, childbirth and menopause. They are most vulnerable to depression at these times.”

However, other than hormonal changes, there are many other factors that can also lead to depression. “Depression is a mental illness marked by an intense and persistent feeling of sadness,” defined Dr Rubeena Kidwai, who has a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology and works with the Pakistan Association for Mental Health. “It can be inherited or can be caused by changes in the brain’s biochemistry, a traumatic or stressful experience, a change in thinking in reaction to events in life, or a combination of some or all of these causes. It can also be experienced as a secondary illness by an individual suffering from a painful disease.” Some of the symptoms of depression include sleeplessness, loss of appetite, low sense of self-worth, inability to concentrate, irritability, fatigue, headaches, a desire to be isolated from others and suicidal thoughts. If a person suffers from any of these symptoms for more than two weeks, he or she is clinically depressed.

A lot of people endure these symptoms without realizing that they are depressed. They visit doctors, only to receive a clean bill of health. Ahmed, a 13-year old boy, frequently suffered from headaches. The headaches could sometimes be allayed by medicines but at other times, they worsened to intense migraines. He spent hours locked up in his room, refusing to socialize with family and friends, and often complained of nightmares. Medical tests indicated that there was nothing wrong with his body. Finally, Ahmed’s parents took him to see a psychiatrist, who deciphered that he was suffering from moderate depression.

“There was no particular reason for Ahmed to be depressed,” said Ahmed’s mother. “The psychiatrist explained that a lot of times the exact cause of depression cannot be ascertained. Perhaps it was due to something that scared him during his childhood or simply because he was more sensitive to what happened around him than other people or it could just be part of his genetic makeup.” In order to cure him, the doctor prescribed Ahmed medication. He also had to attend regular counseling sessions for more than a year.

According to Dr Kidwai, a patient suffering from mild to moderate depression may not need medicines and may just be advised to get counseling. “In the case of severe depression, the patient is unable to perform his or her daily tasks and may also be feeling suicidal,” she said. “In such cases, medicine has to be prescribed immediately, along with psychotherapy. Usually, the medicine improves the patient’s condition within six weeks. Then, gradually, the level of medication is tapered off until it is not needed at all. When a patient has felt well for six months, he or she is cured.”

However, some people are never able to completely stop using anti-depressants. Nasreen, a 48-year old woman, fell prey to depression when her husband died 20 years ago. She has been taking anti-depressants ever since. “Every time the doctor tries to reduce my medication, I immediately have a relapse,” she lamented. “I begin to feel dizzy, cry all the time and my stomach gets upset. Even if I resume taking my original dosage of anti-depressants, it still takes me several months before I can feel normal and healthy again. My psychiatrist says that I suffer from chronic depression and will probably have to continue taking anti-depressants for the rest of my life.”

In many cases, depression cannot be helped. Nevertheless, every individual can take certain steps to try to prevent falling victim to this disease. “A person can try to prevent depression by maintaining a productive lifestyle,” advised Dr Ambareen. “It is important for all of us to take part in activities that make us feel happy. A positive feeling of self-worth may be derived from a hobby, through physical exercise, by turning to religion or by doing altruistic work. You need to recognize what makes you happy and then try to involve yourself in such activities, if not daily then at least twice a week. It is also important to get a good night’s sleep and to have healthy meals. Alcohol and drugs should be avoided, since they contain chemicals that can harm the brain. It always helps to have a strong support system - family and friends who you can share your feelings with. In Pakistan, a lot of people are lucky to be living in joint families. Their depressed feelings can be recognized by their family members and they can be treated before their condition worsens.”

The Double Thinker

AS usual,there are two ways to look at anything. That’s what I learned from reading Steven Pinker. Actually, I learned it from two Steven Pinkers. One is a theorist of human nature, the author of “How the Mind Works” and “The Blank Slate.” The other is a word fetishist, the author of “The Language Instinct” and “Words and Rules.” One minute, he’s explaining the ascent of man; the next, he’s fondling irregular verbs the way other people savor stamps or Civil War memorabilia.

In “The Stuff of Thought,” Pinker says his new book is part of both his gigs. Hence its subtitle: “Language as a Window Into Human Nature.” It sounds as though he’s finally going to pull together his life’s work under one big idea, but he doesn’t. That’s what makes him so edifying and infuriating to read: he sees duality everywhere.

It’s not that Pinker thinks the world can be neatly divided. That would be dualism. In “The Blank Slate,” he trashed the most famous such distinction, the one between mind and matter. Pinker’s duality is of the opposite kind. Categories intersect like dimensions. The mind is what the brain does. Evolution shaped psychology, but in the process psychology evolved its own laws.

“The Stuff of Thought” explores the duality of human cognition: the modesty of its construction and the majesty of its constructive power. Pinker weaves this paradox from a series of opposing theories. Philosophical realists, for instance, think perception comes from reality. Idealists think it’s all in our heads. Pinker says it comes from reality but is organized and reorganized by the mind. That’s why you can look at the same thing in different ways.

Then there’s the clash between ancient and modern science. Aristotle thought projectiles continued through space because a force propelled them. He thought they eventually fell because Earth was their natural home. Modern science rejects both ideas. Pinker says Aristotle was right, not about projectiles but about how we understand them. We think in terms of force and purpose because our minds evolved in a biological world of force and purpose, not in an abstract world of vacuums and multiple gravities. Aristotle’s bad physics was actually good psychology.

How can we be sure the mind works this way? By studying its chief manifestation: language. Variations among verbs reflect our distinctions among physical processes. Nuances among nouns illustrate the alternate interpretations built into our most basic perceptions.

Metaphor turns out to be our crucial talent. It parlays crude animal knowledge into human advancement. From physical destinations, we extrapolate a conception of goals. From physical journeys, we build an understanding of relationships. Metaphors structure even our most advanced ideas: heat works like fluid, atoms like solar systems, genes like code, evolution like design. In each case, language has fossilized the construction process: “heat flow,” “genetic code,” “natural selection.”

Some thinkers worry that this power to frame perceptions can run away with us. In politics, the linguist George Lakoff has warned, “frames trump facts.” In this view, taxes can be depicted as burdens or as membership fees, driving public opinion this way or that. Pinker rejects Lakoff’s ideas, which have become fashionable among Democratic strategists. “Metaphors are generalizations,” he argues. Their implications can be tested against reality. Lakoff’s proposal to reframe taxes as membership fees flunks the test: if you don’t pay your membership fees, you lose your benefits; but if you don’t pay your taxes, you go to jail.

Nature isn’t the only external standard by which we can evaluate and revise frames and claims. Social behavior can test them, too. If frames overpower rational criticism, Pinker asks, then why do Lakoff and other quasi-relativists write books rationally criticizing frames? The medium belies the message. The medium isn’t just reason; it’s language — and language isn’t the manifestation of one mind; it’s the joint manifestation of millions. The reason language works is that it reflects the world as we jointly experience it.
1
2 Next Page »

Art of Procrastination

Did you know that there are over 14 million Google listings about procrastination? One could read article after article, from scientific and psychological journals, to business magazines, self-help books and the like, take notes, be actively involved in researching the subject, feel incredibly productive, and actually be procrastinating all the while. It's a perfect procrastination storm! From Scarlett O'Hara's last lines in "Gone With The Wind" - "I'll think about it tomorrow, after all, tomorrow is another day!" to modern icons like "Seinfeld" and even Charlie Brown, many of us do it: Put things off, hem and haw, deal with things "later." According to Psychology Today, 20 percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators.

There's a Spanish proverb: "Tomorrow is the busiest day of the week." I can relate. When I sit down at my desk to write, strange things happen: I'll sit down, open the computer, write a list, and that's a start, but I never did call that guy at the union, and aren't there dishes in the sink? Then back to the desk, and I've got a bunch of one-step-above-Spam e-mails to read and delete. And where's that tall clothing Web site for the perfect long jacket "nipped at the waist," like Trinny and Suzanne suggested on BBC America's "What Not To Wear?" Then the phone rings, and I'm flossing my teeth - what is that, a popcorn skin? I look for it in the mirror. What's wrong with my hair? Maybe if I wash it and put the cream moisturizer on it while it's wet and let it air dry, I'll have the texture I want.

And so goes a typical morning. And it all eats up time, and I'm no closer to doing the thing I really need to be doing. Deadlines help, even though the word "dead-line" is harsh. But harshness with the procrastinator is sometimes called for.

So is setting smaller goals, making molehills out of projects that seem mountainous, and rewarding yourself each time the smaller job is done. Those perfectionist day-dreams where months, or years go by until the thing is "just right" in your mind? Hello! Wake up, so you can actually start something in your real life.

So. I'll ignore the lint trap in the dryer, find my perfect felt-tipped pen later, and take the sage advice of Dr. Martin Luther King: "You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

War, Psychology and Time

Had al Qaeda periodically attacked the United States after 9/11, the ongoing sense of crisis would not have dissipated. But since no attack occurred, the actions and policies that appeared reasonable and proportionate in 2001 began to appear paranoid and excessive. Moreover, rather than showing the Islamic world the overwhelming power of the United States, the United States is now engaged in a debate over whether there is some hope for its war strategy. The United States has psychologically begun tearing itself apart over both the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq. Whatever your view of that, it is a serious geopolitical fact.

Hypnosis is as Old as Man

The chronicle of hypnosis is as timeworn as the human progeny. Even the most primordial pagans were aware of this marvelous psychological manifestation, and it was used in the mystical rites of their medicine men to create anxiety and amplify confidence in the supernatural and the occult. With this long history of occult and mysticism, it is not unpredicted that the overall public attitude toward hypnosis has been and still is one of opposition, misapprehension and fear.

The original scientific beginnings in the investigation of hypnosis began with Anton Mesmer in 1775, from whose name originates the expression mesmerism which is still in extensive usage. Mesmer`s utilization of hypnosis opened with his find that certain types of medical patients responded to arm stroking and sleep suggestions. Mesmer ascribed these restorative aftereffects to the `quality` of `animal magnetism`, and he invented a supposition that animal magnetism was some enigmatic and peculiar cosmic fluid with soothing features.

Despite Mesmer`s first-rate intuitive apprehension of clinical psychology, he had no bright awareness of the psychological attributes of his therapy. Nevertheless, he medicated a vast number of patients with success on whom archaic medical procedures had failed. However, his fanatical personality and complicated peculiarity of his therapy brought him unjustly to disrepute despite the fact that numerous physicians visited his clinic throughout the culmination of his success to study the most important lessons in the mystic art of psychotherapy, specifically, the importance of clinical psychology.

Since Mesmer there has been a succession of remarkable men who became interested in hypnosis and utilized it effectively in therapeutic practice, giving it an progressively more scientific justification and soundness. Elliotson, the first man in England to utilize the stethoscope, got interested in hypnosis about 1817, employed it substantially, and left superb written material of its medicative value in specific cases. Esdaille, motivated by Elliotson`s case reports, became an keen advocate of mesmerism, as it was then referred to, and really succeeded in interesting the British government in setting up a hospital in India, where he used it extensively on all categories of medical patients, leaving many exceptional manuscripts of major and minor surgery operated under hypnotic anesthesia.

The commencement of a psychological comprehension of the phenomenon began in 1841 with James Braid, at first an opponent and then later a most eager reviewer and supporter. It was he who coined the phrase hypnosis, pointed to the psychological framework of hypnotic sleep, and described lots of its manifestations, brainstorming methods whereby to analyze their legality.