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say that it is the examination that the student especially wishes to pass that he fears he has "flunked." Worry appears to be a conditioned reaction taking the place of real action when no real action is possible.

4. The Treatment of Fears

[SIDIS, Boris, "Beware of Fear," in an interview by Allan Harding, for the American Magazine, December, 1922, Vol. 94, pp. 37, 100.]

The best advice I can give a person who is troubled by any of these secret fears is this: Realize that your fear is simply an expression of your impulse of self-preservation. This is a primitive impulse, and gives rise to the fear instinct in every one of us.

This fear instinct is useful in protecting us from real and present dangers. It is unreasonable if it makes us afraid of imaginary dangers. It is always centered in self. Therefore think about things outside of yourself. Don't exaggerate your own importance, and you do exaggerate your importance if you are sensitive or timid. That is simply one form of vanity. Don't care too much about what other people think of you. They are only human beings like yourself. Don't devote yourself to a quest for your own happiness. If you try to give happiness to others, some of it will cling to your own fingers.

Don't be constantly thinking about your health. Try to live a hygienic life in sanitary surroundings. Work-but don't overwork for long periods, because you then neglect other things, such as exercise and food. Also, people who overwork are are always fearing that it hurts them; and this fear is what does most of the harm.

Don't exaggerate the importance of what you achieve per sonally by your work. One of the evils of modern life, especially in this country, is the excessive competitive element. People are all the time comparing their own achievements with those of others; their amount of wealth, their social position, their education, their success in business. And these constant comparisons set up fears in our minds: the fear of poverty, of unpopularity, of showing our ignorance, of not being promoted, of being "fired," of losing a customer, of not "getting to the top," and so on.

5. Conquest of Fear-in War and After

[HALL, G. Stanley, "Morale in War and After," The Psychological Bul letin, November, 1918, Vol. 15, pp. 371-373.]

One of the greatest problems, if not the chief one, that overtops all others for officers in war is how best, soonest, and most effectively to teach the control of fear. This is also a most important problem for each individual soldier, and how he acquits himself in this task is perhaps the best measure of military efficiency. How can this be done?

It is quite impossible at present to enumerate all the means, direct and indirect, which contribute to this end, for there is almost nothing in a soldier's activities or in his environment that does not in some way bear upon it, and every day's experience helps or hinders this power of control. We can only enumerate here some of the most general and effective aids.

1. When the soldier is lying in the trenches under heavy bombardment, or when he is on distant outpost work in the dark, or wherever instinctive activity, of which danger is the greatest stimulus, is hindered, the morale of courage can never long survive if the mind is focused solely upon the peril; and here, then, we see how the mind inevitably turns to the chief mechanism possible in such conditions, namely, diversion. Any kind of activity or occupation that takes the thoughts away from the immediate danger, however routine the work may be and whether ordered or selfenforced-moving about, conversation, cigarettes, especially a joke, information passed along the line, which sometimes is designated only for this end, even some added discomfort like inrush of water or the necessity of digging out a closed communication, anything to eat or drink-all this helps to relieve, if only momentarily, the strain which may otherwise be so great that the order to go over the top, even in a grilling fire, comes as a relief. Never has the need of diversion been more recognized or more supplied, all the way from home to the front, than for the American soldiers in this war, and its power for morale can never be over-estimated. Of all these diversions the best are those that involve the most activity, whether of mind or body, on the part of the soldier himself. It is far more effective for him to act in a play or sing in a concert than to be merely a spectator or a listener.

2. The second corrective of fear is example. Of this we have had endless illustrations. Even the narration of a brave deed, or a decoration for heroism conferred upon one whom a soldier knows is a powerful incentive to emulation, so gregarious is man. An instance of it actually seen is, of course, far more impressive. Hocking tells of a piper who found a large company of men who had thrown themselves on the ground, exhausted and in despair, ex

pecting annihilation, who were rallied by two friends, one of whom marched up and down with a penny whistle while the other imitated playing a drum, until the wearied men were given cheer and arose saying, "We'll follow you to hell," and were finally led to safety. Here the example of the officer is, of course, the most potent of all. Often every eye is upon him to see if he flinches, hesitates or wavers. If he is cool most men will follow him anywhere, so contagious is courage. In every group of soldiers that become well acquainted there are individuals, sometimes officers and sometimes privates, to whom in danger their comrades turn instinctively for their clue.

3. Some temperaments are able to establish their morale against fear by working themselves up beforehand to a full realization of their peril and of the chance of a wound or even death, and accepting the situation once and for all. We have the best instance of this that I know of in the records of a number of French youth. They thoroughly realized that they had entered upon a course which might have a fatal termination and devoted themselves at the outset, as martyrs, if need be, to the cause which was far greater than their own life. Having made this great decision, they found it gave them strength and poise in critical moments. Not very many, however, save intellectuals and by no means all of them are capable of this type of conscious self-immolation.

4. Far more acquire a kind of fatalism. Some optimists come to believe that the bullet they are to stop has not been cast, while more find relief in the sense that the lot has already been cast, in the lap of Fate, and that they are to live or die more or less irrespectively of anything that they can do. This is akin to the Stoic fatalism, the Mohammedan kismet, or the Puritan will of God.

5. Some, probably by no means as many as churchmen expected, find genuine nervous poise in a religious belief in life after death. This is probably nowhere near so effective in modern armies as it was among the Moslems who held that the dead warrior passes to the lap of the houris in Paradise; or among the old Teutons, who believed in Walhalla; or in Cromwell's Puritan "Ironsides." The sentiment lingers on, but more in the realm of poetic fancy and dim, vague feeling than in conscious conviction. The sense that death will bring honor to friends, or be a sacrifice which the country or the cause needs, involves a higher type of idealism than most soldiers can make into a very potent assuager of fear. Despite all that is said of the glories of dying for one's country or for liberty, the analyses that have been made of patriotism show it to be a complex of many elements, but not yet of prime significance to this end.

6. Probably the chief and most practical factor in the conquest of fear is familiarity. Long before he actually smells powder the

soldier's fancy irresistibly dwells upon his possible wounds or death, while as soon as he nears the front he sees the victims of battle all about him and even sees his friends and comrades fall. He serves his turn on the burial squad and has to bring back the dead and wounded to the rear. This gives a certain immunizing callousness to it all, and he becomes very familiar with the thought that he may be the next victim and so accepts the fact with growing equanimity. The seasoned fighter learns to fight on even though his mates are falling on all sides in death or agony. Human nature can get used to anything, and wont raises the threshold of temibility higher than anything else.

6. Training for Decision

Indecision between courses of action is both annoying and detrimental to the child. This indecision is the result of poor training. It is probable that it is due to repression of impulses by parents or teachers. Constantly telling the child "You mustn't" and "You cannot" tends to make the child timid and self-conscious. They keep him from making decisions and adjusting himself to the outcomes of the decisions. When children are faced with an alternative between courses of actions, they must be taught to make a decision and to abide by the decision. The final decision, however, should be arrived at only after a careful study has been made of what is involved; that is, having considered the different elements involved in each alternative and having made his decision, he should meet it frankly and fully, facing it with all the vigor and determination he can command. If the decision has been unwise, its results will be annoying and he shall be more cautious and careful perhaps in making similar decisions the next time. If the decision was wise, he will be more strongly fortified for future decisions. If for no other reason than for the hygiene and peace of mind, the child should be trained in the making of decisions.

7. Relaxation

[PATRICK, G. T., The Psychology of Relaxation, pp. 18-20, 244–247. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1918.]

The principle involved in all the forms of relaxation . . . is relief from tension or release from some form of restraint.

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Although this tension and restraint on the part of the individual are necessary conditions of all social evolution, they have been greatly intensified by the manner of life which characterizes the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. . . .

When this everlasting urge of progress is excessive, as it has been in recent times, we may say that there is in a way a constant subconscious rebellion against it and a constant disposition to escape from it, and the method of escape is always the temporary reversion to simpler and more primitive forms of behavior, a return to nature, so to speak. Sudden momentary and unexpected release from this tension, with instinctive reinstatement of primitive forms of expression, is laughter. Daily or periodic systematic return to primitive forms of activity is sport or play. War is a violent social reversion to elemental and natural inter-tribal relations. Profanity is a resort to primitive forms of vocal expression to relieve a situation which threatens one's well-being. Alcohol is an artificial means of relieving mental tension by the narcotizing of the higher brain centers.

Psychology of Play, Sport, and War.-The study which we have made of the psychology of play and sport enables us more easily to understand the psychology of war. The high tension of the modern workaday life must be periodically relieved by a return to primitive forms of behavior. . . . War has always been the release of nations from the tension of progress. Man is a fighting animal; at first from necessity, afterwards from habit. . .

The warring nation is purified by war, and thereafter, with a spirit chastened and purged, enters again upon the upward way to attain still greater heights of progress. . . . In war, society sinks back to the primitive type, the primitive mortal combat of man with man, the primitive religious conception of God as God of battles, and the primitive morality of right as might. It brings rest to the higher brain, it brings social relaxation, it brings release from the high tension which is the condition of progress.

8. The Gospel of Relaxation

[JAMES, William, Talks to Teachers, pp. 208, 212-213. New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1915.]

Dr. Clouston. . . visited this country, and said something that has remained in my memory ever since. "You Americans," he said, "wear too much expression on your faces. You are living like an army with all its reserves engaged in action.

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