Convalescent states as well as exhaustion10 from pain and disease, such as fever or a shock from some accident, war-shock, shell-shock, surgical11 shock predispose to the manifestation12 of the fear instinct. Hence the caution of surgeons in the preparation of the patient for a serious operation. For the result[340] may be a shock to the system due to the subconscious activities of the fear instinct present in subconscious mental life, no longer protected by the guardianship13 of the upper consciousness. And it may also be shown, both by experiment and observation, that during the subconscious states when the lower strata14 of dynamic energy are reached, such as hypnoidal, hypnoid states, and sleep, that the individual is more subject to fear than during the waking states. We know how a sudden noise, a flash of light during drowsy15 states or sleep startles one, and the same holds true of any stimulus16. I have observed the same condition of fright during hypnoidal states.
We must agree with the French psychologist, Ribot, when he comes to the conclusion that “every lowering of vitality17, whether permanent or temporary, predisposes to fear; the physiological18 conditions which engender19 or accompany it, are all ready; in a weakened organism fear is always in a nascent20 condition.”
The fear instinct becomes morbid21 when the individual has to draw on his reserve energy, and finds he is unable to do it. The cure consists in the release of the reserve energy which has become inaccessible22. This can be done by various methods, but the best is the method of induction23 of the hypnoidal state under the control of a competent psychopathologist. The whole process consists in the restitution[341] of the levels of dynamic energy and the building up of the patient’s active personality.
From our point of view, fear is not necessarily due to pain previously24 experienced, it may be purely25 instinctive26. The fear instinct may be aroused directly, such for instance is the fear of young children who have never before experienced a fall. In fact we claim that the fear instinct and the restlessness which expresses it antedate27 and precede pain. The fear of pain is but one of the forms under which the fear instinct is manifested. The fear instinct appears long before pain and pleasure come into existence. This holds true not only of the lower animal life, but also of the vague fear found in many a case of neurasthenia and functional28 neurosis and psychosis. Ribot also calls attention to pantophobia. “This is a state in which the patient fears everything, where anxiety instead of being riveted29 on one object, floats as a dream, and only becomes fixed30 for an instant at a time, passing from one object to another, as circumstances may determine.”
It is probably best to classify fears as antecedent and subsequent to experience, or fears as undifferentiated and differentiated31.
When the dynamic energy is used up in the course of life adaptations, and reserve energy is drawn32 upon, there may be danger that the energy may be used up until the static energy is reached, and neuropathic[342] conditions are manifested. These conditions are preceded by psychopathic disturbances33. Associative life becomes disturbed, and emotional reactions become morbid. There is a degeneration or reversion to earlier and lower forms of mental activity, and to lower instinctive life. The primitive34 instincts, the impulse of self-preservation and the fear instinct, come to the foreground, giving rise to the various forms of psychopathic affections.
This process of degeneration and simplification is characteristic of all forms of psychopathic conditions, though it may be more prominent in some cases than in others. The type of mental life becomes lowered and there is a reversion, a sort of atavism, to simpler and more childish experiences, memories, reactions of earlier and less complex forms of mental life. I have laid special stress on this feature of psychopathic reactions in all my works on the subject. What I emphasize in my present work is the fact that psychopathic reactions are dominated by self and fear, which are laid bare by the process of degeneration.
The patient in psychopathic states is tortured by his fears, he is obsessed35 by wishes which are entirely36 due to his fear and deranged37 impulse of self-preservation.
As the static energy is reached, and with lack of functional energy of the dynamic character, the energy habitually38 used in the ordinary relations of[343] life, the patient experiences a monotony, a void in his life activity. He has a feeling of distress39, as if something is haunting him, and possibly something terrible is going to happen to him or his family. He may have a feeling of some depression, and may suffer from a constant unquenchable craving40 for new stimulations, run after new impressions and excitements which pale in a short time on his fagged mind. He is restless, demanding new amusements and distractions42. He is distracted with fear, conscious and more often subconscious,—which he is unable to dispel44 or shake off. He seems to stand over a fearful precipice45, and he is often ready to do anything to avoid this terrible gap in his life. Life is empty, devoid46 of all interest; he talks of ennui47 and even of suicide; he is of a pessimistic, gloomy disposition48, his state of mind approaching a state of melancholia. He asks for new sensations, new pleasures, new enjoyments49 which soon tire him. He is in the condition of a leaking barrel which never can be filled.
Psychopathic individuals are in a state of the wicked “who are like the ocean which never rests.” This misery50 of ever forming wishes and attempting to assuage51 the inner suffering, this craving for new pleasures and excitements, in order to still uneasiness, distress, and the pangs52 of the fear instinct with its gnawing53, agonizing54 anxieties, brings the patient to a state in which he is ready to drink and use[344] narcotics55. The patient seeks ways to relieve his misery. The patient has used up all his available dynamic energy, and being unable to reach the stores of reserve energy looks for a key or stimulant56 to release his locked up reserve energies. The patient is unable to respond to the stimuli of life, so he attempts then the use of his static energy. This can only result in producing psychopathic and neuropathic symptoms.
The patient needs to be lifted out of the misery of monotony and ennui of life, he needs to be raised from his low level of vitality, to be saved from the listlessness into which he has fallen. The low level of energy makes him feel like a physical, nervous, and mental bankrupt. This bankruptcy57 is unbearable58 to him. He is in a state of distraction43, distracted with the agony of fear. Something must be done to free himself from the depression of low spirits and from the low level of energy which keeps him in a state devoid of all interest in life, accompanied by physical, mental and moral fatigue5. He is like a prisoner doomed59 to a life long term.
This constant craving for stimulation41 of energy, this reaction to the anxiety of the morbid fear instinct is the expression of exhaustion of available dynamic energy for the purpose of normal life activity. The patient attempts to draw on his latent reserve energy. Since this form of energy is not accessible to the stimulations of common life, he[345] tries to release the energy by means of artificial stimulations, be it morphine, alcohol, mysticism, Freudism, sexual and religious “at-one-ments” or by other stimuli of exciting character. Unable to release energy by fair means the patient is driven to the employment of foul60 means for the stimulation of new sources of energy. The psychopathic patient is driven by fear, by fears of life and death.
The morbid fear instinct in all cases is brought about by exhaustion of energy, whether sudden or gradual. Fear is due to exhaustion of lower levels of dynamic energy and to the inability of liberation of stored up reserve energy. The more intense this incapacity of utilization61 of reserve stores of energy be, the more intense is the fear. When this condition is prolonged the psychopathic symptoms become unendurable.
The experienced, thinking surgeon has learned the danger of this condition in his operating room. Thus it is told of Porta, the great surgeon of Pavia, when his patients died under an operation, he used to throw his knife and instruments contemptuously to the ground, and shout in a tone of reproach to the corpse62: “Cowards die of fear.”
The great physiologist63 Mosso gives a graphic64 description of the effects of fear in a pathetic case that has come under his personal observation: “As army surgeon, I had once to be present at the execution of some brigands65. It was a summary judgment66.[346] A major of the besaglieri put a few questions to one or two, then turning to the captain said simply: ‘Shoot them.’ I remember one lad, of scarcely twenty years of age, who mumbled67 replies to a few questions, then remained silent, in the position of a man warding68 off a fatal blow, with lifted arms, extended palms, the neck drawn between the shoulders, the head held sideways, the body bent69 and drawn backwards70. When he heard the dreadful words he emitted a shrill71, heart-rending cry of despair, looked around him, as though eagerly seeking something, then turned to flee, and rushed with outspread arms against a wall of the court, writhing72 and scratching it as though trying to force an entrance between the stones, like a polyp clinging to a rock. After a few screams and contortions73, he suddenly sank to the ground, powerless and helpless like a log. He was pale and trembled as I have never seen anyone tremble since. It seemed as though the muscles had been turned to a jelly which was shaken in all directions.”
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1 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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2 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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3 awakened | |
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到 | |
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4 potent | |
adj.强有力的,有权势的;有效力的 | |
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5 fatigue | |
n.疲劳,劳累 | |
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6 fatigued | |
adj. 疲乏的 | |
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7 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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8 stimuli | |
n.刺激(物) | |
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9 subconscious | |
n./adj.潜意识(的),下意识(的) | |
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10 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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11 surgical | |
adj.外科的,外科医生的,手术上的 | |
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12 manifestation | |
n.表现形式;表明;现象 | |
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13 guardianship | |
n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
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14 strata | |
n.地层(复数);社会阶层 | |
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15 drowsy | |
adj.昏昏欲睡的,令人发困的 | |
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16 stimulus | |
n.刺激,刺激物,促进因素,引起兴奋的事物 | |
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17 vitality | |
n.活力,生命力,效力 | |
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18 physiological | |
adj.生理学的,生理学上的 | |
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19 engender | |
v.产生,引起 | |
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20 nascent | |
adj.初生的,发生中的 | |
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21 morbid | |
adj.病的;致病的;病态的;可怕的 | |
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22 inaccessible | |
adj.达不到的,难接近的 | |
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23 induction | |
n.感应,感应现象 | |
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24 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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25 purely | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
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26 instinctive | |
adj.(出于)本能的;直觉的;(出于)天性的 | |
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27 antedate | |
vt.填早...的日期,早干,先干 | |
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28 functional | |
adj.为实用而设计的,具备功能的,起作用的 | |
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29 riveted | |
铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 ); 把…固定住; 吸引; 引起某人的注意 | |
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30 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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31 differentiated | |
区分,区别,辨别( differentiate的过去式和过去分词 ); 区别对待; 表明…间的差别,构成…间差别的特征 | |
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32 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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33 disturbances | |
n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 );打扰;困扰;障碍 | |
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34 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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35 obsessed | |
adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的 | |
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36 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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37 deranged | |
adj.疯狂的 | |
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38 habitually | |
ad.习惯地,通常地 | |
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39 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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40 craving | |
n.渴望,热望 | |
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41 stimulation | |
n.刺激,激励,鼓舞 | |
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42 distractions | |
n.使人分心的事[人]( distraction的名词复数 );娱乐,消遣;心烦意乱;精神错乱 | |
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43 distraction | |
n.精神涣散,精神不集中,消遣,娱乐 | |
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44 dispel | |
vt.驱走,驱散,消除 | |
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45 precipice | |
n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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46 devoid | |
adj.全无的,缺乏的 | |
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47 ennui | |
n.怠倦,无聊 | |
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48 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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49 enjoyments | |
愉快( enjoyment的名词复数 ); 令人愉快的事物; 享有; 享受 | |
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50 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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51 assuage | |
v.缓和,减轻,镇定 | |
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52 pangs | |
突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 ); 悲痛 | |
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53 gnawing | |
a.痛苦的,折磨人的 | |
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54 agonizing | |
adj.痛苦难忍的;使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦;折磨(agonize的ing形式) | |
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55 narcotics | |
n.麻醉药( narcotic的名词复数 );毒品;毒 | |
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56 stimulant | |
n.刺激物,兴奋剂 | |
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57 bankruptcy | |
n.破产;无偿付能力 | |
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58 unbearable | |
adj.不能容忍的;忍受不住的 | |
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59 doomed | |
命定的 | |
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60 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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61 utilization | |
n.利用,效用 | |
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62 corpse | |
n.尸体,死尸 | |
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63 physiologist | |
n.生理学家 | |
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64 graphic | |
adj.生动的,形象的,绘画的,文字的,图表的 | |
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65 brigands | |
n.土匪,强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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66 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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67 mumbled | |
含糊地说某事,叽咕,咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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68 warding | |
监护,守护(ward的现在分词形式) | |
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69 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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70 backwards | |
adv.往回地,向原处,倒,相反,前后倒置地 | |
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71 shrill | |
adj.尖声的;刺耳的;v尖叫 | |
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72 writhing | |
(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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73 contortions | |
n.扭歪,弯曲;扭曲,弄歪,歪曲( contortion的名词复数 ) | |
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