Fundamental Fears: The Ingredients of Every Phobia
Spiders, snakes, sharks, heights, clowns, small spaces, open water, the dark, and ghosts – chances are high that there is something in that list that makes your heart race in a bad way. Fear is something we all share, yet there are many different phobias. The unifying feeling is brought on by many different stimuli, but is there something that every human is afraid of?
Not specifically, no. Arachnophobia (fear of spiders) may be incredibly common, with 48% of women and 12% of men affected, and ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) may follow it up affecting nearly 1/3 of the Earth’s population, but there are always people who will either be desensitized or indifferent to these creatures. When you get a little more general, things change.
In 1991, psychologist Steven Reiss proposed the idea of three fundamental fears that form the underlying foundation for every phobia known to humans. The criteria for a fundamental fear is that it has to be inherently unpleasant, distinct from other fundamental fears, and had to explain common phobias. From this, Reiss deduced the fears of anxiety, physical injury, and negative evaluation which would then evolve into other fears. Arachnophobia and ophidiophobia would root from the fear of injury, while glossophobia (public speaking) and nychtophobia (the dark) would root from the fear of anxiety.
While there was some support for Reiss’ theory, the scientific community eventually began to demand additional criteria in order to define a “fundamental fear”, such as evolutionary origins and an even distribution in society. Furthermore, Reiss’ fears could have been argued to be able to be broken down further, going against Reiss’ own criteria. Anxiety is ambiguous, and negative evaluation could be classified in many different ways.
One of the prevailing theories following the debating of Reiss’ fears was the singular fear of the unknownas the sole fundamental fear humans have. This fear would then be augmented or warped into personal shapes that reflected our pasts. For example, if you’ve seen a spider attack something, you would not know if one was going to attack you, and therefore you would be afraid of the unknown behaviour of spiders. This would support the idea of combating fears through exposure, as you would eventually learn how spiders behaved after repeated exposure.
In 2007, though, award winning scientist Karl Albrecht proposed five new fundamental fearsthat would take the place of the three Reiss proposed. These fears were the fear of extinction, of mutilation, the loss of autonomy, the fear of separation, and of ego-death, all of which would work in tandem to define common fears. It’s almost like a recipe for the most terrifying cake ever.
The fear of extinction limited itself to the fear of sudden death, such as dropping off of a building or crashing in an airplane. This fear worked closely with the fear of mutilation, which is respective to any sort of damage to one’s body. Being bitten by snakes, spiders, or sharks would fall in this category, meaning these two fears would form the general fear of bodily harm.
The fear of loss of autonomy may sound similar to the fear of mutilation, but this is more psychological than physical. Rather than having your bodily structure damaged, loss of autonomy can be boiled down to the fear of being unable to move and perform actions freely. This encompasses things such as claustrophobia, where you would be unable to move around as freely as you may want to, and fear of things such as relationships that would restrict your freedom.
The fear of separation continues the psychological trend, and has a rather obvious definition. While the others were precise in their application, the fear of separation is really just the fear of being rejected, or of not being valued by others. This is comes through most commonly as the fear of rejection. The fear of separation is closely related to the fear of ego-death though, which can be defined as pretty much anything that hurts your ego. This includes humiliation, loss of self-worth, feeling unworthiness, etc. This would form the basis of a fear of public speaking. Overall, these two fears form the general world of psychological fears.
The fears also work in a sort of hierarchy, or “feararchy” as coined by Karl Albrecht, that goes from most physical to most psychological. They are positioned in the same way listed; extinction, mutilation, loss of autonomy, separation, and ego-death. With this progression, we also find the fears to be less common. Many people are afraid of things that can kill them or hurt them, but few have fears of public speaking or being rejected.
Between all five, they act as the building blocks for virtually every fear you can think of. Think of the fear of the unknown as a plain cake, waiting for other ingredients to define it, while Albrecht’s fears are like a list of ingredients with which you can make a variety of baked goods. Either way, you end up with a terrifying cake – it’s just about how you get there that counts.
