Context and themes; (2,000 words)
Definitions - fear, anxiety, phobia (nervousness?)
Fear itself needs no introduction; everyone has at some time or other known this sensation or, more precisely, this effect. It seems to me that we never seriously inquired why the nervous suffered so much more and so much more intensely under this condition. Perhaps it was thought a matter of course; it is usual to confuse the words “nervous” and “anxious” as though they meant the same thing. That is unjustifiable; there are anxious people who are not nervous, and nervous people who suffer from many symptoms, but not from the tendency to anxiety. - Freud
In order to fully understand the context of this essay we must first distinguish the differences between fear, anxiety, and phobia. According to The Oxford English Dictionary fear is simply defined as “an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm”, “The likelihood of something unwelcoming happening” and “A mixed feeling of dread and reverence.” However, when reading further it becomes apparent that the language of fear is ambiguous, using the term “anxiety” in order to describe how fear might make the subject feel. Oxford English dictionary https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/irrational accessed Sunday 11th November 12.14pm
From an anatomical perspective, when a human experiences fear the medulla oblongata (portion of the hindbrain that controls autonomic functions such as breathing, digestion, heart and blood vessel function, swallowing, and sneezing) is irritated, thus also irritating the vagus nerve; which controls and interfaces with parasympathetic control of the heart, lungs, and digestive tract. This causes the body to learn that it is suffering in a neurotic fashion. More specifically the amygdala, is the section of the brain that is responsible for detecting fear and preparing for emergency events. The amygdala is an almond shaped section of nervous tissue; there are two amygdalae located in the temporal lobe of the brain. They are thought to be a part of the limbic system within the brain, which is responsible for emotions, survival instincts, and memory. However, this inclusion has been debated heavily, with evidence that the amygdalae function independently of the limbic system. The amygdala itself is responsible for the perception of emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness, as well as the controlling of aggression. The amygdala helps to store memories of events and emotions so that an individual may be able to recognise similar events in the future. This is why when discussing fear, the amygdala is a key element in embedding fear as an emotional response to certain situations. For example, say you suffered an animal attack, the amygdalae helps in processing that event and, therefore, increases your fear around said animal.
Where fear is typically related to a definite and immediate threat, for example, being physically threatened with a weapon; according to authors Sadock, Sadock and Ruiz (2015), anxiety is “a diffuse, unpleasant, vague sense of apprehension.” Instead of being a cause of direct stimuli, it is often a response to an imprecise or unknown threat. An example of anxiety might be the feeling of unease and discomfort while walking alone. Your mind has fathomed a situation where you might be in danger; a mugger, the prospect of assault or harm. This is not the product of an immediate or specific threat, but rather your minds interpretation of what might happen hypothetically. Although the direct influence of these emotions might be different, the emotions experienced are interrelated; physical reactions to fear can also described as relating to symptoms of anxiety. Fear causes anxiety, and in response, anxiety can also cause fear. https://www.verywellmind.com/fear-and-anxiety-differences-and-similarities-2584399 Sunday 11th 12.20pm
So when do we distinguish fear from phobia? Simply put, a phobia is a fear in its most extreme form; a fear which interrupts day to day life and is intense, severe and persistent. According to Herbert (1994), the origin of the word “phobia” is in ancient Greek mythology, taken from the word phobos, meaning “fear,” “terror,” “panic” or “flight.” Phobos was a Greek god who’s image was painted onto war masks and armour in order to provoke fear and terror on the opposing soldiers (Kavilas (1988)). In the 17th century, Robert Burton commented on the effects of phobias: “They that live in fear are never free, resolute, secure, merry, but in continual pain….No greater misery, no rack, no torture like unto it.” REFERENCE. Franklin Delano Roosevelt also famously stated during World War II, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” - phobia is a fear which has spiralled into ‘insanity’?
Fear has been ingrained in our biology for a reason, wether that be to encourage us to run from a predator, or to not put our hand into a fire. Almost all common fears come from deep in our evolutionary history. Fear of the dark makes sense; we’re more vulnerable in the dark because we can’t see approaching danger. Irrational blindness to fear of the unknown could lead to chaos. However if people let fear hold them back, there would be no pilots, divers or astronauts. The balance lays in understanding the rationality of the fear; is it justified, or irrational?
…
This peaks the question; are fears learned or inherent? Freud distinguished these concepts to be “real” fear and “neurotic” fear. He stated that real fear is seemingly rational and comprehensible, even from an outsiders viewpoint, and can be backed up by the perception of tangible, external danger. This is still however influenced by perspective; he uses the exemplar of an experienced sailor noticing a cloud that informs him of an upcoming storm and reacting with fear and terror, where to the uninstructed passenger the cloud is insignificant.
Neurotic fear on the other hand, he describes as “…a general condition of anxiety, a condition of free-floating fear as it were, which is ready to attach itself to any appropriate idea, to influence judgement, to give rise to expectations…” REFERENCE
Go on to talk about neurotic fear (freud)
Introduce Olsson and Phelps …
The expectancy of danger
In 2007 Olsson and Phelps published a review on the social learning of fear. Their mission was to explore ways in which fear can be conditioned by exploiting the experiences of others through social fear learning; deciding it less risky than involving direct adverse experience on the subject.
A team of scientists ran experiments on the neural processes associated with he development of fear and found that the reaction is the same wether the subject experienced the adverse event personally, or just witnessed it. The New York University study REFERENCE is the first to test responses based on indirect stimuli and fears grown through the observation of others. The findings appear in the most recent issue of the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
As we are aware, fears are commonly developed after first-hand experience of an aversive event; for example being burned by a hot pan or getting bitten by a dog. This process is called ‘fear conditioning’ and the brain’s amygdala plays a critical role in the process.
“However, it’s unclear if fear conditioning can occur indirectly—that is, through social observation with no personal experience. It is also uncertain what neural processes take place in the acquisition of fears stemming from events or circumstances not experienced first-hand.
In this study, subjects witnessed a short video of another individual participating in a fear-conditioning experiment. In the video, subjects saw another person responding with distress when receiving mild electric shocks paired with a colored square.
The subjects watching the video were then told they would take part in an experiment similar to the one they just viewed. Unlike the experiment in the video, these subjects never received shocks.
The subjects watching the video were then told they would take part in an experiment similar to the one they just viewed. Unlike the experiment in the video, these subjects never received shocks.
The results showed that the participants had a robust fear response when they were presented with the colored square that predicted electric shocks in the video, indicating that such a response resulted from merely observing—rather than directly experiencing—an aversive event.
In addition, using brain imaging techniques, the researchers found that the amydgala response was equivalent with both when watching others receive a shock and when presented with the colored square that was previously paired with shock in the video. This finding demonstrates that similar neural systems are engaged when fears are learned through first-hand experience or by merely observing others.”
Quotes;
“In our daily lives, we are frequently exposed to vivid images of others in emotional situations through personal social interactions as well as the media,” explained Phelps.
“The knowledge of somebody else’s emotional state may evoke empathic responses. However, as our results reveal, when others’ emotions are accompanied with vivid expressions and perceived as potentially relevant to our own future well being, we may engage additional learning mechanisms.”
Olsson added: “In a way, learning by observing others’ emotional responses is like exploiting their expertise without being directly exposed to the potential risks associated with the direct learning. This seems a very adaptive thing to do for most social animals, which could explain why it is commonly seen across species. However, it remains to be explored in what way uniquely human social abilities contribute to learning fears through social observation.”
Current understanding of phobia tells us that …
According to the guardian, phobias can be categorised into three possible headings; specific phobias, social phobias and agoraphobia.
Specific phobias are simply defined as “an irrational fear of a specific thing or situation.” These types of phobias can be subdivided into situational, environmental, animal, and injury or pain related. Some examples may include claustrophobia; phobia of small spaces (situational), or trypanophobia; phobia of needles and other such invasive procedures (pain and injury).
Social phobia might be felt towards public speaking for example. In its essence, all it consists of is talking; something which most of us have been capable of since our first year on this earth. Yet a large majority of us feel nauseas at the prospect.
Agoraphobia is potentially the most misunderstood out of the three. Commonly seen as a fear of “open spaces”, or a fear or leaving the house altogether, agoraphobia actually describes a phobia of being in a situation with no obvious escape, or where help or a sense of safety would be tenuous. Such situations may include; queues, public transport or busy supermarkets. This phobia can often result in the subject favouring staying in their safe environment of their home to facing the outside, hence the confusion with “open spaces”.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/jun/28/phobias-rationale-irrational-fears Accessed Wednesday 28th Nov @ 13.16pm
So are we born to be afraid? One perspective could be to approach fears as a “threshold effect”. Some fears wont be manifested until hormones kick in and your brain has matured to encompass stress, shame and panic.
Internal/ external influences, shift into rational thinking/ nature vs nurture - are fears learned emotions?
Influences to fear - environment, education, micro to macro understanding of the world
Chances are, as a child, fear was a part of the natural process of becoming aware of your surroundings, and facing the vast unknown for the first time. Common fears such as a dislike for the dark, monsters lurking under the bed or a trip to the doctors might have aroused butterflies in your stomach or bouts of crying and general upset, which were sedated with the presence of the familiar face of a parent or favourite stuffed toy. As children, the world is new, things are unfamiliar and acts such as using the toilet, something so natural to an adult, are grand feats to be overcome. However as you age and obtain rational thinking your world view grows from micro to macro. Surprisingly often, childhood fears and anxieties are carried into adult life, just in a different form. Monsters under our bed become burglars and intruders, a fear of strangers may have turned into social anxiety, fear of getting lost becomes fear of losing others, and scary nightmares become fitful dreams about debt and responsibility.
If we are to study childhood fears in a more general sense, it is safe to assume many of these feelings came from the unknown.
Made popular by Mary Shelly’s ‘Frankenstein’, fear of the unknown is now a running theme in genres science fiction and horror. The ‘unknown’ is something that regularly crops up when discussing fear. A new mother fears giving birth for the first time. A teen might fear their first day of school. A child fears what happens when the lights turn off in their bedroom. Fear of an unknown future always comes to the forefront. It is human nature for a person to have a need to know everything around them and to strive for control of their journey. When someone is faced with the unknown, the initial reaction is usually, if even for a second, fear. In Frankenstein, we learn as readers over the course of the novel that the monster is in fact not to be feared and instead we are encouraged to feel a level of pity for the monsters circumstance. This can be applied to most fear we discover as a child. Take for example a fear of dogs or other such animals. After time and the growth of rational thinking, most adults are made aware that dogs are in fact harmless for the most part, and familiarise themselves with their mannerisms. By learning and understanding the animal, they are no longer unknown, and therefore no longer something to fear.
It is common for people to confuse the correct language for how they are feeling; especially in a world where social media and the internet has made expressing emotions so easy and flippant it has caused a potential devalue in the terminology. Colloquialisms such as the overuse of “literally” and the desensitisation of words like “depressed” and “anxious” have normalised the common terminology for mental illness. Although on occasion this has sparked positive steps for the open discussion of mental health in the modern day, it has blurred some definitions. In everyday conversation, we use the language of emotions that we're comfortable and familiar with. "I'm stressed” can often translate to something more serious such as a compulsive disorder, but for those who might be adverse to sharing vulnerability. Or, exaggerating otherwise normal situations with language such as “sheer terror” might actually just translate to mean “concern”. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-dance-connection/200910/fear-vs-anxiety Sunday 11th 12.24pm
Coping mechanisms/ rituals (fight or flight), Do childhood fears disappear with age or do we simply repress them due to increase in responsibility?
NOTES:
“For the only purposeful behaviour in the face of imminent danger would be the cool appraisal of one’s own strength in comparison with the extent of the threatening danger, and then decide which would presage a happier ending: flight, defence, or possibly even attack. Under such a proceeding fear has absolutely no place; everything that happens would be consummated just as well and better without the development of fear. You know that if fear is too strong, it proves absolutely useless and paralyses every action, even flight.” - freud
"DSM-IV codes are the classification found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision, also known as DSM-IV-TR, a manual published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) that includes all currently recognized mental health disorders. The DSM-IV codes are thus used by mental health professionals to describe the features of a given mental disorder and indicate how the disorder can be distinguished from other, similar problems.[1]"
"The coding system utilized by the DSM-IV is designed to correspond with codes from the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, commonly referred to as the ICD-9-CM. Since early versions of the DSM did not correlate with ICD codes and updates of the publications for the ICD and the DSM are not simultaneous, some distinctions in the coding systems may still be present. For this reason, it is recommended that users of these manuals consult the appropriate reference when accessing diagnostic codes"
"It's not like those with phobias aren't aware of them. One of the criteria in the DSM-IV for diagnosing phobias is that the sufferer is aware of the irrational nature of their fear. There are a lot of brain regions involved, like the insular cortex and amygdala. And you can't simply make someone encounter the thing they're afraid of to show them it's harmless. As far as the brain is concerned, the fear response IS a negative physical consequence, so on a subconscious level the phobia is self-fulfilling.
There are methods of treating phobias if they're genuinely debilitating. Systematic desensitisation is one approach (where the source of the phobia is introduced in easily-managed stages), cognitive behavioural therapy, even antidepressants if all else fails.
It's different if you're talking about things like homophobia or Islamophobia, as often these are more likely to be misleadingly named prejudices than genuine phobias. There are fewer options for treating these though; science has tackled many psychological conditions, but there's still no known cure for being a dick."
https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/jun/28/phobias-rationale-irrational-fears Accessed Wednesday 28th Nov @ 13.16pm
Case studies; (1500)
Paula Rego (book)
Francisco De Goya (jstor) https://www.jstor.org/stable/428115?casa_token=MH4Z5p5GzDwAAAAA:Q0W4lmvVXzl8eJYeWtpXscFHyvBfJjulJLLd-OAuC_CVNMZZdzrFFl3L-6FCHDW_SLqETaGrN442cbEKY53LH9vv4pbLuMxao5V1w2JBILYsKC8cz-8&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
Junji Ito (thesis) https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/136820/Two_Way_Mirror_Joel_Reynolds_IP_Final_Thesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Hieronymus Bosch (PDF)
Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch/Netherlandish draughtsman and painter from Brabant practicing in 15th and 16th century, when demonic activity, witchcraft and myth was universal belief. What makes his work noteworthy is it continues to arouse interest, and maintains it appeal despite more than 450 years worth of changes in religious beliefs, knowledge and culture; despite to their lack of topographical or historical incident. Bosch used common dream mechanisms to convincingly portray scenes of twisted creatures in a world under the domination of devils who are set out to successfully and relentlessly torment and vanquish mankind. One hypothesis put forward by R E Hemphill REFERENCE is that “Bosch represented the devil’s campaign on earth” … “influenced by this belief as that of a phycotic by his delusions.” These fantasies he created corresponded well with and reflected the fears of the great witch hunt period REFERENCE . In regards to fear, Bosch’s paintings showed obsessions with the concepts of absorption, penetration, metamorphosis and teratogenesis; these continued as running themes in his work.
There are said to be two types of artist in this genre; a visionary artist, and an artist of imagination. Where a visionary artist paints images as they see them, an artist of conscious imagination will illustrate an idea based on how they consider it ought to appear. Bosch is claimed to be the latter, although there remains some speculation as to how he viewed his work; there is a fine line between imagination and hallucinations and due to his ambiguous and undocumented personal life this leaves us unclear on the matter of his mental state.
Bosch’s most recurrent and important visual motif was of trees, either dead, alive, or somewhere in between. We see this imagery quite blatantly in his painting “The Human Tree” REFERENCE (pg20/ 142 of hemphill)
How does the human tree utilise fear? How do his motifs tie in with my previous comments?
“The effect is of a dream that has been secured with all its action, emotion and strangeness” - Hemphill pg 16 or 138 (check this!)
Goya
Link religious themes??
Junji Ito
Introduce horror as a genre to exploit fear
Junji Ito is famous Japanese horror manga artist and writer who focuses on turning the everyday horrific by perverting imagery and landscape.
The Enigma of Amigara Fault - comic about a mysterious stone formation that draws people in like hypnotic personal voids
Ito’s lack of reliance of what's come before in regards to the horror genre really makes him reach to find horror in places we might not have otherwise considered. He finds fear in our everyday lives and represents it visually without delusion.
Horror as a genre is generally less effective in frightening viewers after the subject or threat of the fear has been explained. Explaining why a sinister entity is the way it is lets us understand its logic, and in doing so allows us to confront and deal with our emotions surrounding it. This is never the case with Ito’s work, instead of an explanation, we are only allowed glimpses. This strengthens our fear; a threat you can understand vs. one you can't even comprehend. This brings us back to a previous reference made to humans fear of the unknown.
The hanging balloons - no understanding of where they came from or why they wish to complete the acts they are set out to do. In a normal plot this could simply ensue frustration with the reader or viewer.
Developed his own unique narrative structure - instead of the gentle rising arc from build up, to conflict, to resolution or conclusion; Ito relies on a sudden spike of intense fear directly towards the conclusion of the narrative. In order to achieve this he uses a technique entirely exclusive to novel or illustrated comics
"Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity."
TS Eliot
"I’m not afraid of failing, but I am afraid of doing bad work."
Steven Bochco, writer and originator, Hill Street Blues
"I never sit down to write an advertisement without thinking THIS TIME I AM GOING TO FAIL."
David Ogilvy
"When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it."
John Steinbeck
"The unpredictability is what makes what we do in advertising so exciting. You literally don’t know where you are going to end up."
Sir John Hegarty
"The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize."
Robert Hughes, art critic
"I’ve learnt that it is far easier to write a speech about good advertising than it is to write a good ad."
Leo Burnett
No comments:
Post a Comment