Other Ways to Conquer Fear

There are ways to conquer fear other than analysing and unmasking it, and some doctors have the experience of watching a sufferer inventing his own method. Some find the cause of the fear and try to conquer and control this, believing that with the cause removed the fear will go. For example, one woman, terrified of the palpitations because of fear of dying during an attack, so succeeded in losing her fear of death, that she lost her fear of the palpitations. I have not suggested that you use this method for this type of breakdown, because there are too many instances where much would be made from nothing and one difficulty overcome only to find a dozen in its place. At this stage I prefer to attack fear itself.

For example, Mrs G. was afraid to walk up the street to go shopping. When she analysed why she was afraid, she found many obstacles causing fear, among them passing the telephone booth where she once collapsed, passing the neighbour with the glittering eye, waiting to be served at the butcher’s, and so on – the list was long. To discover why she feared each obstacle would have been a research programme in itself. Common sense rebels at the thought. It is more satisfactory to find a common approach to meet each obstacle encountered on that journey up the street. Unmasking fear itself is such an approach. No longer afraid of the physical sensation of fear, Mrs G. can float past the telephone booth, past the neighbour’s glittering eye, even into the butcher’s.