Fear of Fear

If we were bombed tonight, the people of the city would not know what to do. . . . There would be hysterical people, people who would actually die from fear, standing up. . . . Very few people burn to death. They are scared to death.

In these none too scientific words Washington's Chief Air-Raid Warden warned the city's wardens against the effects of panic.* Last week in Manhattan, the Emergency Committee of Neuro-Psychiatric Societies, headed by Psychiatrist John A. P. Millet, began a series of lectures to wardens, giving a more realistic picture of the possibilities of air-raid panic.

Actually panic, which is sudden, unreasonable fear, may make people stampede, faint, sweat, shake, soil their breeches, have palpitation of the heart--but it will not kill a healthy person.

The people who panic most easily are those who have unconscious anxieties of their own, which danger brings to the surface. Such people feel that danger is directed at them individually--that every bomb is aimed at their heads. Best way for such people to protect themselves against panic is to take part in group activities, get some duty to do in time of danger. (Actually the bombing of Britain proved that air raids sometimes make neurotics more courageous than they normally are. Apparent explanation: a common danger externalizes neurotic anxieties, draws the neurotics out of themselves and closer to other people than usual.)

Chief points in the lectures on panic prevention which Dr. Millet's committee is giving to air-raid wardens: 1) nowhere in World War II have air raids broken civilian morale; 2) much of the tension that the public now feels would clear up in an actual bombing; 3) calm, authoritative leadership will minimize panic.

For handling panicky individuals, the rule is: isolate them from crowds and see that they get medical care.

To civilians who want to protect themselves and their families from possible panic, psychiatrists suggest:

>Take part in more family, group and community activities.

>Get a definite emergency job to do, and practice it.

>Avoid overfatigue and malnutrition.

>Avoid synthetic morale-builders like alcohol, fatalism or "forgetting the war."

>Remember that attackers never panic. Anxiety, if it is successfully canalized into an aggressive effort to help win the war, will never become fear.

*Named for the Greek shepherd god Pan, whose hoofs, horns, tail and goat beard panicked his mother Penelope when he was born.

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