The Perception of Fear

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Fear is created by your perspective of a situation, object or topic. You fear something based on the way you perceive it, evaluating whether it as a threat to you or not. Once a fear is born it continues to shape your perspective intensifying the fear and guaranteeing that it will remain. When these perspectives become distorted the fear that drives them has the potential to take control over a person’s life. As the fear grows clear observation is limited and obsessive behavior can occur. Once a person’s perspective is controlled by their fear their quality of life diminishes which contributes to pessimism and a lack of social connections. In the article Seeing by feeling: Virtues, Skills, and Moral Perceptions one of Aristotle’s famous quotes is used to associate perception with decision making. “When it comes to thinking about what to do, ultimately the decision rest with perception.” Fear is created by perspective.

Once a fear is born it may prevent a person from clear observation which can cause their perspective to become distorted. When you are not interpreting your surroundings accurately you will fear things that shouldn’t be feared or not to the extent perceived. In the movie 1984 gripping fear keeps Winston from observing the details of the underground room: But he hardly noticed his surroundings. All he noticed was that there were two small tables straight in front of him (Orwell 5). O’Brian controls what Winston is able to look at, giving him power to control the dynamics of the situation: He was strapped upright in a chair so tightly that he could move nothing not even his head (Orwell 7). Because of this position Winston cannot clearly observe his surroundings changing his perception by fear of the u...

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