Blogpost 6: The Philosophy of Fear

Whenever I here the word: fear, I start to think about ghosts, darkness, flesh-eating monsters, zombies, mummies, blood, terror, gruesome death and screaming people. I know, its overrated, huh? Well, I am very imaginative. Kidding aside, although there a lot of connotations that can be attached with the word "fear", there is this one denotation that I like: a distressing emotion by impending danger, evil and pain, whether the threat is real or imagined. (Source: Dictionary.com) I believe that fear is part of our survival instinct. It helps us to survive such dangerous situations. For example, you are being chased by a wild dog, the initial emotion that you will feel is fear and eventually your nervous system will think of a way to flee from that situation. In that way, you'll be safe and alive.

As I was searching for more details regarding fear, I came across this article on Philosophy Now, which is entitled, "A Philosophy of Fear by Lars Svendsen" by Mark Frankel. I was very hooked with the topic because I discovered that Lars Svendsen wrote a book that entirely focuses on fear.

"We can philosophize about anything, even fear," says Mark Frankel.

According to the article, philosophizing about fear is a possible idea because even during ancient times, philosophers had thought of various kinds of emotions such as fear, love, anger, lust and many more. The author of the book, Lars Svendsen, claims that our lives are greatly being colonized by fear. In addition, he believes that, "It is tyrannies not democracies which thrive on the politics of fear." I agree with him because tyrants tend to become sadist. They say that they want what's the best for their countrymen, they become dictators, they lust for more power, thus creating misery to the citizens.

Now let's proceed to a religious point of view, it is stated in the article that, there is a paradox which involves Christianity. An example of this is the presentation of Christianity as a religion of love. But it ironically, isolates its principles and store fears of the temporal world with threats of hellfire to come. Nowadays, we have no news about the threat of damnation from the priests of bishops who leads the church. Maybe it is because educated opinions are tend to be repelled by such a blatant manipulation. 

Moreover, the article talked about how philosophers are classified. They can be classified on whether they have an optimistic or a pessimistic political philosophy. For optimist philosophers, they believe that the civil society is endangered by trust and reasons. On the other hand, the pessimist philosophers believe that we hang on to the assistant for fear of so much worse. Some of these fearful philosophers are, Machiavelli and Hobbes. These two philosophers believe that fear can be used to train people.

              Thomas Hobbes             Niccolò Machiavelli

I believe that the author of the book, "A Philosophy of Fear", is really interested in discovering the relationship of fear in philosophy and politics. His book contains important information that can be useful for people. Fear can be viewed in different aspects and in this post it is all about the philosophy of it. Fear is a mainstream topic and I think everybody can relate with it. Fear has become a terrible feeling for most of the people.

Reflecting on what I have read about in this article, I begin to wonder, if there are more philosophical views that is related with fear. This views may be positive or negative but regardless if its positive/negative, I'm sure that it contains a point that will enlighten us. Most teenagers nowadays are more prone to experience fear. Why? Because teenagers today are very curious. They will try and try new things just to feed their curiosity. And some of the outcome of their actions may not be good. Who knows, maybe this will be the indicator that they'll begin to fear something.

Blogpost 5: It's the Culture Speaking

So we now know that phobia is rooted in fear. Phobia is excessive and morbid fear. As I was wondering if there is a connection between fear and culture, I was amaze when I realized that there is when I searched for articles. But first, I'll share to you what I know about culture. When I was still in high school, I was once told that culture is "the way of living" by my History teacher. Culture starts in the family. Our parents are the ones who influence us the most when it comes to culture. For example, your father trained you and your siblings to never participate in a discussion if your opinion is not needed. Once you leave your home, you'll carry that virtue with you. This means that whatever we learn in our home can be carried out in the real world. 

You see, culture is the collective deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, virtues, values, attitudes, hierarchies, religion, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group hardships. Fear can be related to culture. Culture is like an umbrella, a main plot, and under that umbrella lies many subplots.  As I was reading through a lot of articles, I found out that phobia can be acquired in his/her culture. While I was searching for more information about it, I found an article on About.com, entitled, "Culture-Specific Phobias: Understanding the Phobias of Specific Cultures" by Lisa Fritscher. She said that anxiety disorders are mainstream and it is very evident worldwide. 

"Anxiety disorders are fairly common worldwide, affecting an estimated 16.6% of the world population each year. Many phobias are common across all groups, transcending age, gender and socioeconomic status. Other phobias, however, appear almost exclusively among particular cultural groups." This statements are from Lisa Fritscher.

The said cultural phobias are Ataque de Nervios and Taijin Kyofusho. First, Ataque de Nervios, is a certain condition that is visible almost exclusively among the Hispanic clients. females are more likely to acquire this than males. The symptoms of this condition is the uncontrollable crying and screaming, inability to move, fainting, and loss of memory. This condition shares many symptoms with a panic attack. However, panic attack occurs in a very unreasonable manner and triggers in a situation which is not really that frightening. Moreover, most people who have Ataque de Nervios, are not afraid of encountering such situations in the future. On the other hand, Taijin Kyofusho (also known as a disorder of fear is a condition that appears exclusively among those of the Japanese pedigree, and not that dominant among the other Asian cultures. This condition is the reciprocal of social phobia. Instead of being embarrass by others, it's noted by a fear of one's physical appearance offending others.

I was very hooked in the concept of "Taijin Kyofusho", so I decided to read more about it. And I found out that it can be subdivided in different parts; sekimen-kyofu is the fear of blushing, jikoshisen-kyofu is the fear of eye-to-eye contact, shubo-kyofu:is the fear of a deformed body, jikoshu-kyofu: is the fear of having a foul body odor. I also learned that this condition is more dominant in male rather than females. I was very shocked to discover that Japan has this kind of phobia. I know that Japanese people are very sociable but to think that they are worried that their appearances may affect others? I think it's ironic.

It's truly amazing to know more and more things about phobia. Culture depicts a person. It molds our personalities and attitudes. It also affects are beliefs and life. Knowing that there is a connection between phobia and culture, I discovered that there are many cultural phobias that can be derived from different countries. As a result, some people may suffer from these irrational fear but let us not forget to respect them.

Having read tons of articles, I realized that there is a link between culture and phobia. Knowing these facts only proves that many fields can really be related with phobia and fear. Another thing that I realized is that, some culture-related phobias may be dominant in some countries. I think there are still many things that I need to discover and information to uncover. So, I'll do my best to find articles that will feed by curiosity. 

Blogpost 4: Differentiating Fear from Phobia

VS.

Okay, so many of you may think that fear and phobias are the same but I am here to tell you that they are not. I, for one, thought that they are the same but by the time I've done my research I figure out that they are dissimilar. I'm sure that all of us experience fear during our childhood, right? Fear is just an impermanent feeling or emotion when you encounter something that makes you scared. It is rational and goes away for just a small amount of time while phobia is something that is serious. Phobia is an uncontrollable feeling that a person may have and a phobic person may have a hard time overcoming it. 

While I was searching in Google for articles that may be related in this matter, I have read an article in WebMD, entitled, "The Fear Factor: Phobias" by Heather Hatfield. The author said that a person suffering from phobia is living with grave fear and anxiety. 

"Phobias involve the experience of persistent fear that is excessive and unreasonable," says Mr. R. Reid Wilson, PhD. (also a spokesman for the American Psychological Association)

According to the article, to say that someone has a phobia, his fear must instigate a different level of damage. Someone experiencing phobia is that they get so scared that makes them do something irrational. For instance, a woman who was afraid of spiders and it got to the point that she don't even wanna go outside at night. It's irrational, right? What does a spider got to do with going outside at night? In addition, phobia is considered as a mental illness by Kathy Hoganbruen, PhD, National Mental Health Association spokesperson. A person might had a bad experience or they become traumatize that's related to the origin of their phobia. 

Knowing and considering the source of fear is important because if you only have a small and simple fear of something, you don't need to over-think about it. You may also begin to transform your daily ritual to avoid any possible triggers.  Psychologically, if you are have a phobia, you are prone to develop the fear of fear itself. You'll become paranoid and will constantly think of it. You don't have to, because thinking about it will greatly affect you when you are forced to confront it and there is no way out. An example of it is when you are supposed to go on a trip abroad and you really need to board a plane, but you over-think your fear of riding a plane. Then, that's a time that it will become a problem.

A person with phobia may have trouble in sleeping and focusing on certain tasks as the dreaded day of confrontation draws closer. To overcome phobia, there are certain procedures that may be followed. There is behavior therapy, a process in which you'll be exposing yourself to the things that causes your excessive fear. For instance, you are afraid of heights, imagine the things that can be seen beautifully when you are in a high place. When you are in a hanging bridge, do not look down because you might get scared and just fall down and consequently die. Instead, look straight ahead and think as if you are just walking on the ground.

Undergoing behavior therapy may cure your irrational and excessive fear of a certain thing. Not curing phobias may become a hindrance to one's success. For example, your offered a lucrative job and you just turn it down because you are afraid of riding an elevator in the office, or you will avoid certain medications such as getting vaccines for flu/whatever diseases because you are afraid of needles/injection. As you can observe, negative outcome can come from your phobia so do your best to lessen your fear.

See? Phobias can affect your life. Now, let us go to fear. Fear is pretty simple. It serves as our "survival instinct". Our nervous system is responsible for our responsible for initial reaction that we will execute when we encounter something scary and horrible. So, being scared is not really a bad thing. Fears can make us stronger because once we overcome it we may become a brave and a tougher person. Although fear and phobia are two different ideas, they may intersect at some point. For example, you just fear speaking in front and you later developed an excessive fear of it that you don't even want to talk to a large number of people.

Reading a number of articles fed my ignorance. I came to realize that fear is different from phobia in some aspects. Fear is rational while phobia is not. Phobia affects great opportunities for people. On the other hand, fear is an initial reaction that our body feels when there is something scary. Phobia is rooted to fear. In fact, phobia is excessive fear and traumatic experience can contribute to the development of phobia.

Blogpost 3: On Being a "Germaphobe"

While I was watching "The Big Bang Theory", I noticed that Sheldon Cooper, one of the main characters of the show, is a germaphobe. He is obsess when it comes to sanitation.  There is this scene (Episode 11 of Season 1) where Penny, the female protagonist, came home from Nebraska. Leonard (male protagonist) asked how her trip was and Penny answered, "It's a worse trip, everyone got sick over the weekend." Upon hearing the word sick, Sheldon became paranoid and asks a lot of questions about that sickness.  He even sprayed something in the atmosphere to eliminate bacteria in the air. In the end, Sheldon got sick and his friends took care of him. 

Sheldon spraying something in the air.

Germaphobia is the irrational fear of germs, dirt or contamination. A germaphobe person always feel that his hands must be washed, also known as obsessive-compulsive disorder. I mean, I know that we should avoid germs to prevent getting sick, but being obsess about it? I think its not a good idea, Something that's too much is always a bad thing.  I believe that we should maintain proper hygiene but not that to the point that each of us becomes a germaphobe.

As I was researching things about Germaphobia, I came across a site called MedicineNet.com in which I found an article entitled, "Cleanliness Rules Germaphobes' Lives" by Leanna Skarnulis. In her article, I found out that washing and cleaning for germaphobes are very important. She stated that obsessive-compulsive disorder is caused by an abnormality in a genetic component in the brain's circuitry. Most adult people with OCD believes that they acquire their illness when they were kids or when they undergone adolescence. 

"What's true with all types of OCD is that a compulsion is acted out to relieve anxiety produced by an obsessive, intrusive thought," as stated by Ms. Leanna Skarnulis.

Thinking of such bad manifestation such as when you got wounded and you already washed it, applied ointment, and dressed it with a bandage, you still think it is not enough and microscopic organisms will inhabit your wound and will cause infection. Thus, you will repeat the process over and over again until you are satisfied.

Let's talk about bacteria for a while because it is related with germophobia. I have read an article in The Virtual Museum of Bacteria, entitled, Bacteria are Needed for Life by Dr. T. M. Wassenaar. According to him, most people think of the three D's when they hear the word "bacteria". These three D's are dirt, disease and death. 

"Life evolved from, and with, bacteria, and all higher animals are dependent on bacteria," as stated by Dr. T. M. Wassenaar.

In addition, he stated that pathogenic bacteria are the ones that cause bacterial infections that will eventually make us ill. Other bacteria are good. In fact, humans have 10 times more bacteria that the human cells that are present in the body. Some of these bacteria create genes that encode for beneficial compounds that the body cannot make on its own.

Reading a whole lot of articles about Germaphobia made me realized that not all bacteria are bad. Some of them helps our body to grow and develop. I have learned that true germaphobes have OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). Being neat is nice, being a net-freak is not. Our body needs bacteria. And as I've said anything that is too much is bad for you.

Blogpost 2: The Politics of Phobia

I wonder if there are many more fields that are associated with phobia. I mean, its a wide topic. Fear of a certain thing is normal. It may serve as our weakness or it may be a catalyst for us to be stronger. Phobia on the other hand exceeds the normal span of time that a person get scared/terrified. It is like abnormal fear. I, for one, has a phobia. I get really nervous just by thinking of speaking in front of a public. I think I am not confident enough that's why I have that. And as I am searching random things about phobia in the internet fear of public speaking is one of the most prominent kind of phobia. 

I am really curious on why people get really scared of something that it affects their lives. So I've done my research. Phobia is an interesting topic to explore and as expected there is so much information that I can get in a single search. Thousands of different articles flashed before my eyes, but there is this one article that caught my eye. It's an article I found on Research in English at Liverpool John Moores University by David Tyrer entitled, "The Politics of Phobia." The article discusses the phenomenon of phobias from different aspects such as: cultural, sociological, and historical. He starts talking about the history of phobias. He said that the term “phobia” became famous during the 19^th century because it is intrinsically connected to many historical events. For instance, the idea of claustrophobia (fear of being trapped in a small place/room) and agoraphobia (fear of being in a public places) originated during the Franco-Prussian War; claustrophobia during the siege of Paris, and agoraphobia subsequent to the consolation of the city. In addition, he stated that phobias develop through something that even us cannot decipher. For example, a sense of uneasiness around something, means the phobia itself becomes shorthand for that displaced fear. Therefore, phobia itself is a very intriguing topic it lacks a definite definition.

"As the notion of the phobia became more popular – and politicized – over time they also became more contested and nebulous with new and arbitrary phobias being regularly invented by the media." This statement is said by David Tyrer.

I agree with the statement said by David Tyrer. Some of the phobias are ridiculous and merely based on their own opinion and views in life. Phobia is now more challenging and vague as they blend in in imperious phobias in today's society. People should be more considerate and they should think first before acting

As I wander through the field of politics and its association with phobia, I found another article that is quite related to the first one. This second article can be found in Spiked which is entitled, "Phobias" by Frank Furedi. He stated that there is a corrupted in the progression to classify the political or cultural views as "phobias" and it must be treated. He states that nowadays, phobia is becoming a very controversial topic as a boundless force that can allegedly change people into a dogmatist and influence them to commit acts of verbal and physical assailment. Many association in the society now are affected by the casualties of other people's phobias, and they argue that they have been a victim of a "phobic" perspective. The society has recently constructed conditions like Homophobia (abhorrence towards a homosexual person and homosexuality) and Islamophobia (hatred towards Muslim).

"Over the past two decades, the use of the word phobia to denote fear or angst about other people has become part of everyday speech," as stated by Frank Furedi.

I think the statement above is true. You can just simply attach the -phobia/-phobic (use it as a suffix) to any word and presto! You'll from a brand new word. There are over 500 different phobias that ranges from A-Z. But there are still many new words that are recently created such as words with "phobia" in it. These words are used for prejudice such as biphobia (abhorrence towards bisexuality), and xenophobia (fear of strangers). The words ending with -phobia have antonyms with the suffix -phile/-phil. An example of it is and Germanophobe (one who fears Germany, people and its culture) which has an antonym Germanophile (a person who's fond of German culture).

An English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, believes that human nature is "tainted". Humans will act according to their corrupted nature. I think this view of human nature can be applied to those people who are degrading other human being by discriminating them by using phobia as a term for prejudice. In contrast to Mr. Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, an English philosopher and a physician, believe that people are inherently "good" in nature. He believes that human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance. I think all people should live with this philosophy because it's positive and good. I also believe that people are reasonable enough to do what's right. So, people who can think only of themselves should change and those who think of hurting other people should get a life and make it productive.

Upon reading the two articles, I came into a realization that history is related with phobia. Aside from history, phenomenon of phobias can also be studied form sociological and cultural perspective. I've learned that the words with "phobia" have negative connotations. People use them to discriminate others. I think its not good so people should stop using them. The politics of phobia as a whole is so entertaining and I get to enjoy reading it. 

Blogpost 1: Introducing Phobia

As I read articles about phobia, I noticed that the word "phobia" comes from Phobos, a Greek word which means gruesome fear. Phobos has a twin brother named Deimos. Deimos' name means dread or terror. The twins are recognized not only in mythology but also in astronomy. Names of moons in Mars were named after them. Phobos is the nearest satellite from Mars. And it is also 7.24 times as massive as the second moon Deimos. The satellites were discovered in 1877 and were named by an American astronomer named Asaph Hall III. 

Phobia is universally known as an excessive fear of a certain thing or situation. In fact, there are various kinds of phobia. Psychologically speaking, phobia is a persistent irrational fear that one may feel. It is a type of anxiety disorder. A phobic person commits to great lengths in avoiding, basically dissimilar from the real danger posed. Phobia cannot be evaded completely; a sufferer will undergo the situation they got into or an object that act as a stimulus to their fear.

Phobia is associated with fear. Science says that fear is a series of reaction in the brain which begins with a dreadful stimulus and ends with the unleash of chemicals that cause palpitation, irregular breathing and invigorated muscles. These outputs are also known as the fight-or-flight response. The brain is an extremely complex organ. It is composed of more than 100 billion of nerve cells that comprise a network of communications that is responsible for everything that is sensed, thought, and done. These communications may be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary communications are consciously thought and acted. On the other hand, involuntary communications/autonomic responses are not consciously triggered and shown.

 

Brain cells constantly transfer pieces of information; there are a lot of areas of the brain that peripherally associated in fear. According to researches, there are certain parts of the brain that play central role in the process. First, it starts with the thalamus. The thalamus decides on where to pass the incoming sensory data. Second is the sensory cortex. It is responsible for the interpretation of data. Third is the hippocampus. It serves as storage and retrieves conscious and also processes the sets of stimuli to establish context. Fourth is the amygdala which decodes the emotions and determines the plausible threat. It also stores fear memories. And the last is the hypothalamus. It activates the “fight or flight” reactions.

When someone experiences fear, he or she will engage in a period of intense and terrible, often temporarily weakening sense of ultimate fear or psychological distress which is called a panic attack. Flight or fight responses are actually panic attacks. Throughout panic attacks, the body basically releases huge amounts of adrenaline into the bloodstream which causes a person to hyperventilate, vomit, tremble, and choke or to become nauseous. A number of first time sufferers of panic attacks usually believe that they are going to die or they have lost their sanity. Many often say that flight or fight responses are one of the most horrible experiences in their lives.

As I was searching for more information about phobia, I came across an article entitled, “Phobias: The Rationale behind Irrational Fears” by Dean Burnett in the site The Guardian. He stated that phobias are mainstream. The thing that scares people frequently makes a little logical sense. He says that when you fear something for no reason, then that person has a possibility of having a phobia.

 

“How do we even develop a fear that is by definition irrational? One explanation is classical conditioning; you experience something bad involving a thing, you associate the bad experience with that thing, then you become afraid of that thing.” This is stated by Dean Burnett.

I believe what Mr. Dean Burnett is trying to say is that fear can be developed through experiences which happens to be bad and is part of our history. Things that are associated with our memory that have negative connotation to one’s life. Moreover, he said that learning by observation is what clever humans do. For instance, your mother is hysterically panicking over a flying wasp when you are just a kid, probably you’ll be afraid of it too.

After reading all the articles, I came to realize that phobia can be discussed from different perspective and it is very broad. I also become enlightened about certain things such as; the origin of phobia, science and psychology of phobia, and how phobia is develop. Researching about phobia is very interesting and thrilling because I get to learn new information that is not very common.