{"id":799,"date":"2005-07-23T19:06:14","date_gmt":"2005-07-23T19:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/?p=799"},"modified":"2010-05-05T11:57:34","modified_gmt":"2010-05-05T11:57:34","slug":"the-psychology-of-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/?p=799","title":{"rendered":"Terrorism and the Psychology of Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

London has been attacked more than once. That alters the way we calculate the odds of danger<\/strong><\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

‘Let them hate, so long as they fear.’<\/em><\/p>\n

Lucius Accius Telephus (170 BC – 86 BC)<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Terrorism works by instilling not just fear in us but also by inducing in us a sense of helplessness. \u00a0That is why its violence is random. Indeed, the more indiscriminate it is in selecting its defenceless victims, the better it suits the terrorists\u2019 purpose.<\/p>\n

Outrages take us into mental territory which is beyond our normal comprehension. And the sheer irrationality of this psychology of fear makes it hard for us to construe what is happening around us.<\/p>\n

The problem is not so much what we experience as how we interpret it, says Dr Michael Reddy, chairman of Independent Counselling and Advisory Services, a British-based international private network of psychologists that has been at work with trauma victims in London in recent days. \u201cTwo people,\u201d he says, \u201ccan experience the exact same situation and see it entirely differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which explains why, according to which newspaper you read, London has been in recent times a \u201cCity of Fear\u201d or one in which the resilient \u201cSpirit of the Blitz\u201d is at work.\u00a0 You pays your money.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there will be at the present moment quite a lot of people who are afraid,\u201d says Dr Reddy. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s a city of fear because the resilience is clearly in evidence too.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is more to this than the false dichotomy that sees fear and resilience are opposites. Courage isn\u2019t fearlessness, so much as coping with fear, as the Bishop of Oxford, a former soldier, pointed out yesterday. It is something to do with the difficulty of working out what are the real levels of risk.<\/p>\n

The bombers have now targeted London \u2013 unlike New York, Bali or Madrid \u2013 more than once. That alters the way we calculate the odds of danger, according to Dr Stephen Joseph, an expert in post-traumatic stress from the University of\u00a0 Warwick.<\/p>\n

Terrorist attacks awaken deep existential fears and poison the very process of reasoning. After 9\/11 American psychologists attempted to counter this by pointing out that even the Twin Towers attack killed far fewer people than die every year at the hands of criminals, in automobile accidents, or through preventable illnesses. People were not convinced by such mere facts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now there has been more than one terrorist attack in London the rationale alters,\u201d says Dr Joseph, \u201cIs it safe to go on the tube? We don\u2019t yet have the information, in these early days, to know what is the probability of another attack. So we can\u2019t work out the real level of risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Londoners make three million trips a day over about 1,600 square kilometres on the Tube, so whatever the change in the odds the risk must surely be minimal? \u201cPeople bring all sorts of past experiences to bear when they make their judgements,\u201d says Dr Joseph. \u201cAt this stage we just have to respect the decisions that individuals make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myth is a potent tool of the terrorist here. The psychological blow involved in making the Tube feel unsafe is magnified by the fact during the Second World War the London Underground was cherished as a symbol of safety at a time of danger \u2013 a place where, during the Blitz, Londoners were safe from German bombs. What was once a haven has now become, in mythic perception, a death trap.<\/p>\n

Of course there were myths about the Blitz too. Joanna Bourke, in her book Fear: A Cultural History recounts how during the German bombing of London there were panics among the stoical resilience. Such a contradictory combination is only to be expected today. Terrorism works because it undercuts the established sense of trust, stability and confidence each individual has in their personal world. \u201cThe more indiscriminate it is the better,\u201d says Dr Reddy, \u201cbecause it shatters the illusion of predictability, control and meaning which are what get us all out of bed every morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Psychologists talk here of the \u201canticipatory anxiety\u201d as the population wait for the next bomb to go off . They add in the notion of the \u201clearned helplessness\u201d as we come to terms with the fact that there is nothing or very little we can do to stop it. A profound sense of loss of control results. And control, according to Joanna Bourke, is a key ingredient in combating fear.<\/p>\n

During the Battle of Britain, she reveals, British fighter pilots were twice as likely to be killed as bomber crews. Yet those in bombers were far more frightened. The level of fear was determined by the nature of the work. Bomber pilots were under orders to hold their course regardless of the dangers; fighter pilots were free to manoeuvre and could vent their fear as aggression, attacking their attackers. One man who served in both capacities reported that when he was flying bombers he couldn\u2019t sleep, and would be drenched in sweat every time he climbed into the plane, but that as a fighter pilot he loved what he called \u201cthe sport\u201d.<\/p>\n

Intriguingly, what in the United States came to be called September 11 Syndrome was not something which effected those directly involved in the trauma. Rather it affected people across America, in epidemic numbers, and was most prevalent \u00a0among those who had remained transfixed to their TV sets for hours watching the towers crash over and over again. If the propaganda value of 9\/11 was immense, the response of a tv-addicted nation made it even more so. \u201cIf there was no television the terrorists wouldn\u2019t bother,\u201d ventures Dr Reddy. Terrorists want a lot of people watching, more than a lot of people dead.<\/p>\n

Fear becomes anxiety when it goes beyond the specific danger situation, says Philip Zimbardo, President of the American Psychological Association, \u00a0and is generalised into \u201ca more pervasive feeling of personal vulnerability to things that are not intrinsically dangerous, but are linked symbolically or historically to danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was clear in America in the three weeks after 9\/11 when anthrax was sent through the US postal system. Though nearly 700 million pieces of mail were sent every day \u2013 and only eight people were infected by anthrax \u2013 there were many individuals who became so afraid of the postal service that they developed\u00a0 a phobia which prevented them from licking a stamp. \u00a0\u201cOur biggest problem isn\u2019t anthrax; it\u2019s fear,\u201d said Dan Rather of CBS-TV at the time. Those who responded to terrorism with fear became, in an odd psychological way, terrorists in their own society.<\/p>\n

Xenophobia \u2013 including the fear of those perceived as strangers within as well as outside society \u2013 is a common response to terrorist outrages. This is particularly so where there is already a distrust between different communities or groups of \u00a0citizens. If a scapegoating mentality develops the diversity in a population \u2013 which ought to be an opportunity for unity and strength \u2013 becomes a real menace. The absence of a clearly defined enemy can also lead to heightened tensions between people who previously regarded themselves on the same side.<\/p>\n

It might be supposed that these psychological dynamics alter or intensify where the terrorist threat grows. This appears not to be the case, according to Dr Michael Reddy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the threat wanes then the fear and alertness wears off over time, as days pass and nothing else happens,\u201d he says. \u201cBut even if it doesn\u2019t, you get used to it. We know that from London\u2019s experience during the long years of the IRA bombing campaign. And something similar is the case today in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is confirmed by trauma specialists in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where terrorist suicide bombings of buses are a common event. \u201cColleagues there say, you just shrug and hope you\u2019re not on the wrong bus or in the wrong restaurant,\u201d Dr Reddy reports. In the end the choice is between getting on with your life or opting out, which is just not ultimately a real option for most people.<\/p>\n

What most psychologists agree upon, however, is the extent to which the labels we put upon such situations can become self-fulfilling prophecies. \u201cWhat we say \u2013 and what the media says in its coverage \u2013 in the end create its own truths,\u201d says Michael Reddy. \u201cYou can see anything in a picture that you want to see and make anything out of a situation that suits your view of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence is overwhelming that people benefit from support that others give them \u00a0in practical and emotional ways \u2013 what you might call the Blitz spirit,\u201d says Stephen Joseph. \u201cIn saying you detect it you are helping to create or foster it.\u201d In saying the opposite you may be promoting the disintegration of something which could prove vital.<\/p>\n

There is more to that that Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s celebrated phrase that \u201cthe only thing we have to fear is fear itself\u201d. It is that the stories we tell about our experience can shape that experience even as it happens. \u201cMen fear death as children fear to go in the dark,\u201d as the great essayist Francis Bacon put it, \u201cand as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the terrorist wants is for our fear to outweigh our collective virtue, and in doing so to paralyse our hopes and commitment to justice and reconciliation. To combat that we must travel in the direction of our fear. Otherwise we shall look over our shoulders to find that our fear follows us behind.<\/p>\n

.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London has been attacked more than once. That alters the way we calculate the odds of danger ‘Let them hate, so long as they fear.’ Lucius Accius Telephus (170 BC – 86 BC) Terrorism works by instilling not just fear in us but also by inducing in us a sense of helplessness. \u00a0That is why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,38],"tags":[100,99,716,129],"class_list":["post-799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam","category-society","tag-fear","tag-psychology","tag-society","tag-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=799"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1260,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions\/1260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}