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John Heron, eminent social scientist, artist, holistic educator, leader of co-counseling, has been a great inspiration (to me and others) in his written texts since the 1990s. A real pioneer in understanding the human condition, a true humanist with a transpersonal and creative approach to that understanding--he led many into healing work and empowering ways of being in his life time. I'm sad to hear he passed away last year, at age 94. He obviously lived a long and meaningful life. 

I came across a quote from him today in his important 1996 book Co-operative Inquiry, which definitely hit home for me in terms of how to practice inquiry and research with an epistemology (and attitude) of "fearlessness." Heron wrote, 

"This world of primary meaning [and radical perception with it] is unrestricted perception, consciousness--world union, which is anterior to every distinction [dualism] including that of consciousness and nature (Merleau-Ponty, 1962). It is apprehended by a fearlessness which, 'means being able to respond accurately to the phenomenal world  altogether. It simply means being accurate and absolutely direct in relating with the phenomenal world by means of your sense perceptions, your mind and your sense of vision [aesthetics]' (Trungpa, 1986:31). Attunement with the other, empathy, harmonic resonance, is the way of communion, of participating in the interior world of the other. It grounds and complements and is inseparable..." (p. 120). 

Reference 

Heron, J. (1996). Co-operative inquiry: Research into the human condition. Sage.

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The above quote is so important to me in my fearwork, because as I have been promoting the path of fearlessness (since 1989), many still think fear and fearlessness is all about emotions and feelings and behaviors that counter them. That is so partial and incomplete, as to be nearly useless to what true fear(lessness) is about in the dynamic of what Heron, Merleau-Ponty, and Trungpa are referring to. An epistemological fear(lessness) is the concept that needs to be taught to everyone a lot more. 

Here's my latest teaching video on "Shaving the Edge off One's Personality" (aka, how to deal with fear)...and, I share recent experiences of working with primal early trauma and terror and how Nature can be a powerful healer. 

Disruption into and amongst "Systems" of the banal and everyday, is a huge route to creative innovation, and not just for the fun of it. It can be potently productive, say recent researchers on organizational dynamics: [excerpt] 

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/2576dfff9468a5e3b5ccb0771/images/4301a483-6a6f-4354-8dd3-0a9599a46ec5.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" data-bit="iit" />       Being fearless [1] sometimes requires going where no one else has gone — or, in the case of underrepresented groups, going where no one like you has ever gone. We noticed many companies on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list check one of those boxes. While disruptive innovation is the core thread among all companies on the ranking, many of this year’s honorees have a unique business model centered around social or environmental purpose, 13 have a female founder, and 14 have CEOs representing racial and ethnic minorities. Triple Pundit’s recent article on sustainability innovators was just as inspiring, full of scientists and entrepreneurs who aren’t afraid to do something different. Below, we feature several organizations and individuals who are working fearlessly to conquer challenges and shape a better world — as well as many investors who support others who are disrupting the status quo. They inspire us with their bold actions and courage in the face of adversity. We hope you find them as inspiring as we do.     Note 1. I have typically critiqued the business world on its use of "fearless" which it never defines. See my critical blog on use of the term in the FM ning some days ago.

John Coleman, Apocatastasis Institute,

My colleague John Coleman, founder of Apocatastasis: Institute for the Humanities, sent me this troubling but real article on truth of the growing problem of anxiety, fear and mistrust in the entire fabric of higher education these days. Gen Z, the digital-kids, are particularly plagued with (from an extract): 

"We are often right to be careful, cautious, watchful, wary, chary or circumspect. A certain level of cynicism can be healthy. Each of us has been browbeaten, manipulated, stage-managed, swayed and taken advantage of, and no one likes being conned, deceived, duped, hoodwinked, sweet-talked or taken in.

But distrust can also be toxic, fueling anxiety and suspicion. it is all too easy for a healthy skepticism to lapse into paranoia. Indeed, Wilkinson-Ryan’s theme is that “the ‘healthy’ skepticism we inevitably acquire as a result of experiencing fraud and living amongst bad actors may not be healthy at all and that our fear of being a fool causes us to be less generous, less kind and less compassionate than we truly want to be.” As a result, we’re less likely to give our students the benefit of the doubt." 

[for the full article, go to: https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/2023/06/02/trust-gap-higher-education

[apocatastasis - is a theological term for restoration of perfection once again]

Philosophy of Fearism or FEARISM philosophy, whatever way one constructs these, is a historical (potentially grand and radical) turn in philosophy, and like many other turns before it, there needs to be serious investigation into this turn and its reasons for wanting to make a turn in the way philosophy itself is perceived, constructed, and operates. Any top-notch political movements would do well to be informed by fearism philosophy.  -rmf

Introduction

I often encourage folks to study fear(lessness) with expanded imaginaries rather than old school only ideas and imagination. I ask the learners be open and curious. Lurking amongst the history of ideas about fear are limitations as well as the benefits of careful study. However, in the late 20th century, a new turn had occurred with the emergence of two concepts "fearism" (Fisher) and "philosophy of fearism" (Subba). This blog will not cover that history of new thinking on the topic as there are lots of resources now published to do so [1]. But if you were around in the 1990s, for e.g., there was no way to study fear that truly provided a new philosophy of fear at the same time. 

Okay, enough on the history of ideas and their politics. Let me now turn to the subject of this blogpost, which spun from my watching last night the fascinating historical/drama film by Raoul Peck (2017) The Young Karl Marx. Without resorting to a marxophobic reaction as so many do in the West (especially N. A.) and around the world with fears of socialism and communism, let's back off that fear-based move and keep open and curious, and let the criticism fly later. My colleagues and I are promoting fearism not Marxism per se. 

Peck's film relates to my wanting to talk to Feurbach's philosophical turn in the mid-19th century that Marx and Engels fed from as young revolutionaries in Europe and Britain. It relates indirectly to my desire to elaborate a simple summary purpose of philosophy of fearism and clarify for readers why is this an important history of ideas to name fear(ism) as a philosophical base and movement itself. But before I dive into Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach(1804-72) and his great influence on W. thinkers like Darwin, Marx, Freud, Engels, Wagner and Nietzsche, for examples, let me say a bit more about the Peck film and my attraction. 

I am attracted to any teachings that helps one understand the status quo and its oppositions, the latter being ideas, discourses, and/or movements that challenge and critique the mainstream (sometimes called the Old World view). We see a young 20's something Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels meeting and building a manifesto to challenge the Old World (largely unjust) ways of doing economics and labor relations. A good movie review (Arnoff, 2018) says this is the film the younger generations have been waiting for, those who are tired of the only two alternatives battling under Capitalism vs. Communism. No, there is a third way, called Socialism.

The young Marx was a leading ground philosopher and Engels a sound boots-on-the-ground scientific-empirical thinker of socialism, who saw what was needed to reform labor relations (i.e., classism). That's a great thing in the history of ideas and movements for positive change--in fighting oppression. And the film shows how brash the young philosophers were and the risks they took for what they believed in. The Young Karl Marx is entertaining too but it is "a theory laden movie" an "ideological coming-of-age story" [2]. It depicts some of the real strengths and flaws of revolutionaries and philosophers. It shows that all philosophers also have their politics and there is plenty of clashing. The young brash Marx is obnoxious and angry and determined. His flaws showed and it was clear he needed mediated help from allies like his Jenny and Engels and many others. It takes a community to change the world --to bring about revolution. Clearly, Marx and Engels failed overall, as have many other philosophers to bring about the change they wanted--that is, their ideals. Although, for sure, arguably, much good did change because of these thinkers and those around them that they drew upon, like the ideas of Feuerback and Proudhorn, for examples. 

What was Marx's main complaint? There are many things he critiqued of the status quo, but I'll stay in this blogpost with the philosophical ones, and relate those to Feuerbach's critique and then finally to the philosophy of fearism critique today. 

Understanding Feuerbach's Radical Descent and Philosophical Turn 

First, I admit I have not read Marx and Engels and Feuerbach, other than those mostly who have written about them. I have drawn often on philosopher Ken Wilber to understand these thinkers and their movements they produced in the history of philosophy and in the evolution of consciousness itself--the latter is my most interest. Ultimately, as a fearist thinker myself, I want to know the intimate link between consciousness and fear. I'll return to that later. 

Secondly, I am not for or against Marxism, or Communism or Socialism. I am curious what each of these ideological movements, sets of ideas and their leaders have to offer for a better (less oppressed) humanity--and, that ultimately would be a way to lead the world be be more sane, ecologically sustainable and a healthy place to raise children. 

Thirdly, I am not an ideologue per se, in that I am pushing any "ism" and think all other forms of thought (and isms) are crap. Such exclusionist and reductive (and highly political) thinking doesn't make for good philosophy. Now, I am not a professional philosopher either, and I am want to critique philosophy and even poke fun at it, as we see in the young brash Karl Marx. 

Fourthly, let me say in summary in my own words, without a lot of research on Feuerbach, what I think was happening in these 19th century revolutionary storms of ideas, ideologies, critiques and new offerings of how to live more justly and fair. I simply, woke up this morning, after watching the movie last night, and in my hypnopompic state and darkness of the bed, I am starting to link things. I know Desh Subba has written a lot in the past few years on his fearism critique of Marxism, etc. This is all lingering in the back of my mind. I want to explain what Subba is doing with his version of fearist thinking and some of my own thoughts. So, begin, I say, and write something to start it off here, and the FM ning is as good a place as any to jot down these notes. The largest power in philosophy of the early to mid-19th century seemed to be Hegelian thought. It was Idealistic. It was stunning in depth and scope, but it lacked a practical empirical substantiation. Feuerbach, then Marx (amongst others) were looking for the strengths and fault-lines in Idealism [3] as a way to bring about any real revolution in society, and their criticism was aimed at Hegel and philosophical academicians and at the pompous "young Hegelians" in politics as well. So, Marx and Engels led a socialist attack on "abstraction" (and Hegelian thought and political spin from it). Marx was looking for ideas to turn around Hegelian philosophy in politics and economics. He later would call this class-critique and critique of oppression in general. But before that, I want to focus on the historical evolution of the ideas of criticism that the young Marx was propagating so passionately. So, let me turn to some expertise knowledge beyond my own, from scholars like Wilber and Collins [4], as starters. 

Collins (1998) a sociologist, and a conflict theorist of my own persuasion, is also a great historian of sociology. He has put his scholarship into studying global philosophies and their players and movements as a dynamic network of patterns of power, well worth understanding. Ideas-people-places-power flows are all important in this socioecology of philosophy. So, what does Collins offer us in understanding the core of mid-19th century Europe and the philosophical (political) turn going on and Feuerbach's location in it? In very brief, Collins noted in Germany history of thought and philosophical circles, several networks were going on, and by 1837-42 the "left-Hegelians" were following Feuerbach's philosophical critique mainly [5]. These were more "coffeehouse" like circles and less academicians centered in universities, while basically, they would not last long and German philosophy would move into the academy thereafter. The young Marx and Engels were part of the Feuerbach leftist socialist wing but eventually left it in developming their own critique. A big part of that critique, still following Feuerbach's critique of Hegelianism overall, was to move to a more materialism and secularism in their foundational philosophy--turning spiritual Hegel on his head, as it is often said by historians. They claimed Hegel has it all wrong, and that material was ultimately real, in opposition to Hegel's metaphyics of spiritual is ultimately real. Hegel's philosophy and its new spins could never, for Feuerbach and Marx be a foundation for a just society of labor relations and basic humanist values in the economic sphere of survival. Hegel was philosophy for the bourgeois (elites). 

Feuerbach criticized religion (Christianity) and broke with tradition and Hegelian sympathy for Christianity. "After Hegel's death came Feuerbach and Marx" (and others) [6] to dominate the intellectual waves of thought in philosophy and politics. The Battle of Sense and Soul (Material and Spiritual) (Descenders and Ascenders) continued at this time in history (and it still does). Feuerbach (then Marx) were fighting back to ground philosophy in the sense-world, anti-metaphysical, anti-abstract, anti-elitist. Wilber (1996), wrote, "There is a famous phrase, that after Hegel everybody was saying 'back to Kant!' [i.e., rationality and its grounding in the senses, and empiricism]" [7]. Wilber summarizes: "The collapse of Idealism left the Descenders [materialists] virtually unchallenged as the holders and molders of modernity....the Idealist current was snapped up by the industrial grid and converted, via Feuerbach and Marx, into a strongly materialistic and 'naturalistic' conception. It's almost impossible to escape the modern Descended grid, and after absolutely heroic attempts by the Idealists, they were hounded out of town by the troglodytes. And so Feuerbach, a student of Hegel, would soon announce that any sort of Ascent, was simply a projection of men and women's human potentials onto an 'other world' of wholly imaginative [false] origin. And, according to Feuerbach, it is exactly this ['fear'] projection of human potential onto a 'divine' sphere that cripples men and women and is the true cause of self-alienation" [8]--and, concomitantly, such 'fear' projection as I call it and existentialists like Becker would call it immortality projection, there is a weakening and vulnerability created to exploit that alienated and wish-filled man by the world of the senses-material and economic exploitation. "Get real!" is the Descender-call, the Feuerbach-Marxist charge here. Then, they argue, we can resist and avoid exploitation of workers and the poor, by those who would seduce us into being 'slaves' (labor) for this so-called higher divine spiritual end, of which the elites propogate as ideology in the name of the bourgeois church, state, and corporations. Real empowerment was grassroots, secularist, modernist, and a Descender movement in consciousness itself. 

Wilber (1995), a 'neo-Hegelian' of sorts (but an integralist philosopher), today argues, we humans of the West especially, have not recovered yet from this massive philosophical turn and 'blow' (collapse) of the Kosmos into the materialist explanation for everything--a worldview of only the seeable and matter-based substance is real [9]. Engels would pen, "nothing exists" apart from nature and human beings....The enthusiasm was general; we were all for the moment followers of Feuerbach." Wilber laments, "And the entire modern and postmodern world is, in effect, the followers of Feuerbach" [10]. The larger philosophical question for our time is: What impact on consciousness itself is such a Descender victory?" It has big problems, so Wilber and I argue. 

'Fear' Projection and It's Mighty Problems

Feuerbach then was a philosopher of mighty insight and leadership capability obviously. Marx took it further, and others have taken it further too. This is nothing to dismiss too easily as nonsense. What intrigues me as Wilber analyzes the Feuerbachian (r)evolution of thought, he points out the critique of the materialists toward the spiriitualists (or at least the idealists), is that the latter are projecting ideals for human beings (i.e., their higher human potential and empowerment) onto the divine fantasies and constructions and dogmas around them (e.g., religion). "Projection" is a powerful psychological term, and it is argued by many (including myself) as a fear-projection (or 'fear' projection, as I prefer)--by which a certain inferiority complex in the human is projecting onto the immortal and trying to find a "fearless" representation of identity to attach to to make them feel better (be less fearful of mortality), etc. This complex projection phenomenon, driven by fear-based thought is pathological. Wilber sees this too, as do I. But the materialist philosophies were also trying to point this out and correct it with their own cura philosophy of the time (e.g., secular materialist, and humanist, modernist). Fine. But they could not see their own fatal flaw in the materialist (Feuerbachian factor) turn. That's the point of an integralist critique (a la Wilber), which I prefer, and going beyond that it is my contention that the very ones critiquing the spiritualist philosophies had their own fear-based agenda and ideology as in their form of rejection and criticism. They would not turn that projection critique on their own positionality, and philosophies and politics--that is, on their own self-alienation and diminishment of consciousness itself. Wilber (1995, 1996), for example, tells this story of the unfortunate binary of Ascenders-Descenders, in what is a compelling philosophical story and critique. I recommend you read his lengthy analysis. But yes, Wilber agrees, fear-based projections are on both sides of this battle for reality, and Ascenders only are just as bad as Descenders only. That's the point. It creates massive pathologies at all levels of society and the world and a lot of toxic destruction has shown itself because of the failures of modernity and postmodernity (post-Feuerbachian factor). 

So, along comes this late 20th century, early 21st century new fearism philosophy (a la Fisher-Subba) as another corrective to the Feuerbachian corrective--and, a new battle for philosophy and politics, and how to best live generally, is underway. History of philosophy is like that. History of ideas is not static. And, fearism presents new ideas (and old) and offers up a new menu of choices. At least, that's the argument I wish to remind readers of. Check it out yourself. 

What fearism offers is a re-visioning of what is the basis of existence, and it concludes "fear" is the basis, and it precedes essence and all else that is real. With that, there is no need to be depressed about it. For "fear" in the fearism lens, from the fearist perspective, is not merely negative, not merely an emotion or feeling or defense. And, from there a new story of human potential and corrective to the pathologies of history and philosophy are ready to take shape. But, will it ever get off the ground? Will it every be applied in important places of society? We don't know that yet. The Fearism movement (like Fearlessness Movement) are very nascent, at least, in their current forms. I have always argued, however, that fear(lessness) is foundational to life and evolution. They are ancient forces and intelligences waiting to be tapped by us. We still have to wake up to this potential, and I believe (like Subba, and some others) "fear" is a great channel for this awakening, for this paradigm shift and new philosophy.  

End Notes

1. E.g., see Fisher, R. M., and Subba, D. (2016). Philosophy of fearism: A first East-West dialogue. Xlibris; and Fisher, R. M. (2022). Philosophy of fearism: A primer. Xlibris. 

2. See Arnoff, K. (2018). The Young Karl Marx: A film whose time has come. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2018/03/13/the-young-karl-marx-a-film-whose-time-has-come/

3. Keep in mind that intellectuals, E. and W. at this time, says Collins, "were cosmopolitans" and globalist and more universalist in outlook and philosophies and "Idealism is cosmopolitanism in religion; it is religious thought argued out independently of dogma and tradition. That is why Idealism everywhere is the favored philosophy in the transitional generation of secularizing reformers" (p. 686). 

4. Wilber, K. (1995). Sex, ecology and spirituality: The spirit of evolution (Vol. 1). Shambhala; Collins, R. (1998). The sociology of philosophies: A global theory of intellectual change. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 

5. Collins (1998), pp. 530-1. 

6. Ibid., p. 686. 

7. Wilber, K. (1996). A brief history of everything. Shambhala, p. 282. 

8. Ibid., p. 283. 

9. Wilber (1995). 

Over the 34 years studying the way people perceive, think, talk, teach and preach about fear (and fearlessness), has led me to many conclusions, hypotheses, theories and a philosophy around this topic. It has never ceased to amaze me how difficult it is to find people who really want to learn something fresh and new about fear (and, typically, concomitantly that means they are likewise not very interested to learn anything new or fresh about fearlessness or fearless). 

Basically, it is not their fault they are so unwilling and uninterested to learn anew and to even transform their thinking and imaginaries about the nature and role of fear (and fearlessness). What I see over and over, generally, is their fixing in on some fav definition and conceptualization or even a theory or implicit philosophy that has grown. They have adopted such a philosophy and they teach it with such confidence. 

On one level, you'd think as an educator and human potential advocate that I would be happy that people learn anything about fear and then teach it confidently. You'd think. But that's where the subtlety comes in and disrupts what might be my easy default position to take on individuality and human expression and opinion. I am all for such a beginning of that individual attitude and teaching, even preaching, as long as it is not oppressive and "demanding" (as Yahweh recently uttered on their post here)--but that alone, that free speech agenda, and tolerance, is not what makes a systematic study and learning about fear happen. No, it will not go far. 

That limitation is part of why I began the Fearlessness Movement and its mission "to better understand..." (that's exactly what this website is about)-- and, I'll leave you all with the educative challenge as a community of learners to really look at our self, our conditioning, without blame and attack or loathing, without fear that we are doing something wrong IF we are not so confident in preaching about fear. Good intentions to give advice about fear, a mainstay, of the teacher or preacher, is often a shallow pattern of knowledge pretending to be way more than it is because the intentions of goodness and helping are seen by the individual as their motivation for "sharing." 

True fearlessness work, as a path of learning and transformation, requires so much more than that "sharing"--I guess that's my main intervening point in this short blog. After 34 years of fear study, I can tell you, and I publish on this all the time, there is less confidence I know what I am talking about or even preaching about. 

One of the things that regularly disturbs me in the common discourses that have shaped people's minds, is they think they know what not only "fear" is all about but they utter the term "fearless" or even "fearlessness" as if they know exactly what that is. Maybe they do, in their own minds. But I ask, what theory of fear(lessness) are you utilizing to make your truth claims, your offerings of advice and your expressions? I am not saying here nor have I ever said, "stop sharing people because you don't know enough" and I am not saying either "you should listen to me because I know better." That said, some will definitely interpret that is what I am saying and publishing about in my work. 

The nuances of my points above, could be debated, and I'm glad to do so as part of the learning here on this FM ning. To offer but the most basic outline of a "theory" and a good deal of how I think about these topics, go to my book The World's Fearlessness Teachings: A Critical Integral Approach to Fear Management/Education for the 21st Century" (2010). That publication is one of many of mine. It also lists hundreds of references I have looked at and suggests where you can learn more about these topics. To end here, my short thesis in that book (based on 20 years of research) is that "fearless" is quite completely misunderstood by most people and "fearlessness" is even less understood. I create an integral developmental theory (from a fearlessness perspective) in that book. The theory says that we need to speak much more carefully about our ideas re: fear and how we manage it and educate ourselves and others around it. I call for a new improved and critical Fear Education 101. 

My basic developmental (evolutionary) theory of fear (management) goes through several distinct (albeit, overlapping) phases or stages--each with its own particular intelligence and adaptive strategies to manage fear:

Stage 1 - No Fear,

Stage 2 - Bravery,

Stage 3- Courage(ous),

Stage 4 - Fear Less,

---------------'Fear' Barrier (abyss) ----------

Stage 5 - Fearlessness

Stage 6 - Fearless.

I ask people to look at the data, the arguments, the references, the logic and the intuitions behind why I have used this language and these categories. I want to upgrade our poor fear education generally to get it up to snuff with the 21st century demands upon us as a species. 

Let's learn more together! 

FOR THE FULL TALK, GO TO: https://prism.ucalgary.ca/items/b7a1e87b-f771-4a2d-914b-a1a5c8c08af9

For the most updated summary (primer) of this philosophy, go to: Fisher, R. M. (2022). Philosophy of fearism: A primer. Xlbiris. 

Hi all, just wanted to encourage you all to take time to look through this FM ning site, to search in the upper (right hand) box on the front page for topics and see what shows up here, and/or start your own Blog writing and sharing, and of course Forum Discussion threads are also available and sharing Photos. Look forward to what 138 people can do IF we decide to work and connect and play together to revision a world that is not "fear-based" at its core, but shifts to a "fearlessness-based" approach to everything! 

Of course, then we have to study and learn and create, and check out reflectively what it iis we think we already know about fear and fearlessness, and that maybe we don't agree with others' views about these topics and/or we may have to be honest we don't know as much as we think we know. We can co-inquire, debate, dialogue, and travel respectfully, together, or alone or a bit of both--that fact is, this is an online community that can work for us or it can remain a 'shell' with little life in it. Our choice... 

Looking forward to continuing the sailing... 

A leader of "Fearlessness Studies" --and an "expert", is what I have recently been called by Dr. Barrett, March 29/23:

For my latest radio interview with founder and host of Truth Jihad Radio, Dr. Kevin Barrett, as we discuss fearlessness and Marianne Williamson and her 2024 campaign for president of the USA (start at 15:34): 

https://www.unz.com/audio/kbarrett_peter-myers-re-solves-mh-370-r-michael-fisher-on-political-fearlessness-marianne-williamson-2024/

A student of the eminent Rollo May, here is my FearTalk with Kirk J. Schneider, exploring topics of interest to how to create a better democracy, and its relationship to dialogue, to fear/anxiety/terror of existence, etc. 

Bhawani Shankar Adhikari (Ph.D.)
Lecturer of English (Nepal Sanskrit University,
Valmiki Campus, Exhibition Road, Kathmandu,
Nepal)

Abstract
This research has explored the role of fear and its outcome in the quest for beauty in Sylvia
Plath’s poem “Mirror”. Beauty has been defined as the source of power as well as the cause of
the annihilation of the entire civilization. Internal beauty has a superior role to external beauty.
The persona of the poem has been found engaged in the quest for external beauty even in her
old age which is unnatural and worthless. Extreme fear has acted negatively and devastatingly
to ruin the life of the persona of the poem. It has led the speaker of the poem to the horrified,
terrified, scared, and depersonalized condition which compelled her to commit suicide.
Whatever the search it maybe with fear, it must be focused on the balance form of fear to
maintain and achieve the goal in life. Otherwise, fear’s role and its effect tend to be detrimental
and destructive to reaching the destination of keeping beauty, peace, and harmony in life. It has
been analyzed how fear has acted and affected the life of Sylvia Plath due to extreme fear in
beauty’s quest in old age.

Keywords: depersonalized, fear, detrimental, quest, suicide

Introduction
Fear is defined as a psychological instinct. It is a natural one. Animals have fear in its natural
form which is different from human fear. Birds and other animals reflect their fear via their
body’s selection as birds fly through the human voice. Sensational knowledge is found in
animals’ fear. However, fear emerges through Psychology in human beings. in this
sense, man is directed, conducted, and controlled by psychological fear as it is
claimed:” life is directed, conducted and controlled by fear (Subba, cover page)”. Fear is
identified through Consciousness and knowledge in day-to-day life. fear is the outcome
of knowledge and consciousness.” fear exists only with knowledge” (Subba-47). Fear
functions in different roles in day-to-day life. Fear is the main cause of making errors
and conquering fear is the path to gaining wisdom (Russell 1373). There are various
kinds of fears- fear of Gods, fear of ghosts, fear of committing sins, fear of superstition,
fear of making mistakes, fear of losing health, fear of lacking beauty- and a person does
not like to lose beauty. Sylvia Plath doubts personal beauty and seeks it with different
objects. Beauty is power and it is of two kinds- internal beauty and external. Internal

beauty Is character, excellence, skills, and knowledge. Internal beauty helps us to
survive and to become successful in life. It is a kind of power to enhance the inner
quality of life. Internal and external beauty will be rare to achieve. It is called ‘inside’ and
‘outside’ beauty. (Sontag 300).

Beauty is not always taken from the positive side. Helen of Troy caused 10 years of
battle and brought disaster to the world. Padmini, the most beautiful woman of the
Rajput family had to burn down herself after the war was developed from her side.
(Devkota, 332-338) And she had to go to the Muslim king but she burnt herself to death.
Helen of Troy’s Trojan War and Padmini's Battle have generated fear in the psyches of
all in the world. In this sense, beauty lurks and hides the fear within its quality. The war
took place due to Helen’s and Padmini’s beauty being captured them. The power of
beauty invites risk, death, danger, and misfortune as has been displayed in the life of
Helen and Padmini. Likewise, Medusa, the chief of the three Georgian sisters was the
most beautiful one in the great mythology. The lesson states that she was the most
beautiful maiden, especially famous for her hair but she violated the temple of Minerva.
she was arrogant in her beauty and was Kicked in the temple. As a result, she was
transformed into a serpent and made her face so terrified that whoever looked at it
turned into stone. She was assassinated by Perseus. Her face retained its power of
turning anything into stone, even after her death. Her dead body with hissing serpents
was placed in a temple as a punishment for her beauty’s pride. The poem “Medusa” has
described the scenes which ended the mortal life of Medusa Who has pictured as
sympathetic in its description of the beautiful legendary girl Medusa who was caused
and charged into an ugly and horrible woman. (Bogam 380-81). This plight of Medusa
reveals that the power of beauty leads to disaster, destruction, horror fear, and
humiliation.  Hence, beauty must be taken with care, awareness, and effectiveness with
the vision of its pros and cons. Fear dwells and hides in the traits of beauty.

Regarding Halen, “In the Homeric poems, she is the surprisingly beautiful wife of Menelaus, and
her abduction by Paris led to the Trojan war (Lohani 338)”. It displayed the disaster of Helen’s
beauty to draw the Trojan war for 10 years.
Padmini was a beautiful Rajput queen, A Mewar, wife of Ratna Singha. Enchanted by the talks
of her beauty, Alladin Ahilji attacked Mewar in order to achieve her. The Rajputs were defeated
and Padmini burned herself to death, before falling into the hands of the Muslim king
(Lohami338). Padmini’s beauty became a kind of curse in her life. Her beauty ruined her and
she turned out to be the victim of her own charming personality.

Research questions:
Beauty has been regarded as the source of power and glamour in mortal life. The research is
guided with:

A. What is the effect of beauty in the personal life of Sylvia Plath reflected in the poem ‘mirror’?
B: How has fear acted in the poem “Mirror”?

Objectives:
The general objective is to discuss the role of beauty in life but the specific objective is:
A: To explore the effect of beauty in the personal life of the poetess Sylvia Plath as revealed in
the poem “Mirror”.
B: To investigate the fear’s role as it has acted in the poem “Mirror”.
Methodology:
The research has been carried out in the detailed analysis of the poem “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath.
Fearism has been adopted as the lens to analyze the poem. ’Mirror’ is taken as a primary text.
The secondary sources are taken from other journals, magazines, and articles as supporting
tools.
Significance of the Study:
The significance of the study dwells to create awareness and consciousness in dealing with fear
and beauty. It has shown the connection between fear and beauty in which the role of fear has
opened how beauty has to be dealt with. Beauty has not turned out to be always positive since
it hides risks and fear. The invisible aspects of fear lead to the entire annihilation of life if the
beauty is mishandled.
Delimitation:
This research has been confined to the textual analysis of the poem ‘Mirror’ by Sylvia Plath. It
has only been observed from the perspective of fear and its role seen in the poem.
Literature review:
The poem “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath has been studied through psychoanalysis. It has been
interpreted as the reflection of the emotional condition of the speaker in a metaphorical
personification, imagery, and ironical form. (https://www./csue.org). It has presented that the
speaker herself has become a mirror reflecting the truth. In Ariel, the female's awareness is
transformed into a hall of mirrors, the frames of which are built in babyhood. These mirrors
eventually cut the woman off from any romanticized memories of the past, reflecting a Sleeping
Beauty painfully awake or asleep. Irreversibly dead. As in Plath's earlier story "The Wishing
Box," the theme of Sleeping Beauty's transformative rest is converted into a never-ending
awakening. (McCort 148) Plath used the children's book, as both a frame and a layered fraction, as a
mirror to sustain her own experience, making it an essential method within her devotional poetics for
trying to enter her childhood past and pondering the past's influence on her present. Plath's life story is

often framed by the mirror of children's literature, which provides a key to restarting her own mindset
and comprehending the manner in which she assimilated the frameworks of her society from the pages
of those children's books she loved and admired ((McCort 156). She has reflected on her own position as
a child in her poems.
Plath illustrates how connected the past and the present are in female experience, how profoun
dly females’ perceptions of their identities are grounded in the tales which have been told
them as girls, and how widely the self can be regarded as a continuously revisable tale (McCort
156). She reveals her own identity through the identity of children’s fiction and poetry.

Contradictions flow in both ways. Plath's individual demon is the truly horrible fish, the woman under
the water who has accepted her depersonalization and passivity and yearns for the numbing it promises
(Freedman160) The image suggests that the mirror includes the fish and that underneath it lurks a
monstrosity. However, the same picture may also suggest that a two-dimensional image of the angelic is
a type of monstrosity. In other words, the monster in the depths is also the beast on the surface, or,
maybe more precisely, the monstrosity of mere surface and lack of depth ((Schwartz 72). Accepting the
role of the mirror implies indirectly accepting the male-proscribed image of woman and mother
(Freedman 165). Aggression triumphs over tenderness in Plath's "Mirror," as well as many of her other
poems about motherhood and trapping. As a result, a woman who adopts the reflecting role has
become cruel, especially to herself, (Schwartz 72). The poetess has been reflected as the fish seeking her
beauty in the lake. The study intends to draw attention to Plath’s serious depression and identify the
mental disorder as a result of patriarchal and societal stereotypes. The outcome demonstrates that
hysteria symptoms such as depersonalization limited her existence and drove her to commit suicide
(Ghlib, 2593) The poetess’s depression has been reflected in her poem and it has
demonstrated how she has been forced to commit suicide.
“The Mirror” poem demonstrates that a life managed strictly by the false reality is not life
but, but an unbearable death -in-life that only be conquered by dying to that life (Kroll
1978). It displayed how the persona of the poem has been victimized inwardly and how
she has been seeking her own identity in the poem. The mirror shows the kinds of
traumas that, like Sylvia Plath’s, were hidden behind a tight and imprecise composure
designed to project an idealized picture.
Sylvia Plath worked tirelessly all through her life to reconcile her inner and outer selves
(Schwartz 20). She has turned out in a dilemma of internal and external conflict in her life. The
researchers have revealed the poetess’s mental disorder, personal conflict of inner and outer
selves, a metaphorical reflection of the condition of her youth turning into a mother and her
attempt to escape from her earthly life. But the role of fear and her search for beauty for her
existence has not been analyzed yet as this research has attempted to fulfill the existing
research gap.

Analysis
The poem “Mirror” has got two stanzas in which the first describes the condition of the
mirror as the narrator in the room and the second stanza imagens the mirror as the lake to
reflect the decaying beauty of the woman who does not trust to mirror and goes to the lake
to seek her true and factual facial appearance through the image reflected in the lake.
The woman laments the loss of her beauty, admitting that she is getting older day by day.
She has got the fear of losing her beauty and she has struggled of maintaining her beauty.
She does not long to lose her charming personality and she has put a mirror on the wall of
her bedroom. And the narrator is the mirror of the personified one. “I am silver and exact. I
have no preconceptions (Plath)” is the first line of the poem. The mirror is made up of silver and it says
that the mirror has not got any discrimination or preconceptions to reflect the condition of the owner
exactly what she is. ” Whatever I see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike
(Plath)”. The extracted line is presented in two lines in the poem and the mirror narrates that she
swallows immediately whatever comes in front of it and the mirror does not have any discrimination of
like and dislike and love and hate in revealing the truth. The mirror demonstrates the fact in unmisted
form but the owner of the mirror is the poetess herself and she has doubts with the mirror whether it
has reflected the truth about her beauty. She is scared of being ugly and she does not long to vanish her
beauty. The woman in "Mirror" is Plath's mother as well as Sylvia, who expresses her gloomy fears that
one day she will become her mother (Conway 42). When a girl is young, she has no need to consult the
mirror; she has no idea that the mirror will become so important. So, the woman has got lurking
longings of keeping her prettiness and charming image, and attractive personality.

The narrator is kind and true to anyone who comes to seek their image. “I am not cruel, only truthful ‚
The eye of a little god, four-cornered (Plath)”. The mirror’s eye has been considered the eye of the little
god in revealing the truth without being cruel to the visitors and objects of the four corners of the room.
It does not alter while reflecting the visitors. The mirror describes its existence and its owner, who grows
older as the mirror watches and finds the owner is scared of becoming old and losing her beauty.
almost all the time the mirror meditates on the opposite wall and it has stared at it
for so long that the mirror thinks that the opposite wall has become its heart. Faces
of visitors and darkness separate the mirror and the opposite wall (Plath). The image
of the wall is interrupted only by people who enter to look at themselves and the darkness that comes
with the night.
The mirror imagines itself as a lake in the second stanza of the poem. The mirror utters:
“Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is (Plath)”.
A woman comes to the lake and bends over it to get her beauty. she is seeking her true position and
facial appearance in the lake. It conveys that she is unfaithful to the mirror on the wall and she has not
become contented with what the mirror has got reflected. She has turned out old and lost her beauty

and she is frightened by the loss of her charming appearance reflected in the mirror. She is cynical about
her external appearance in the mirror and has gone to the lake to know what she really is. The poem
“Mirror” reflects not only the plight of women in Plath’s position but also the
predicament of all women who believe they must continue to stay young and
attractive in order to be regarded as relevant. In “Mirror”, the mirror proclaims
the woman a failure. Mirrors aren't necessary for a really successful woman (Conway
44). It shows that the mirror’s reflection has become troublesome and the woman has
feared her ugly appearance. She has not found what she exactly is and she has to go to
the lake in search of her beauty. the mirror changes in the poem’s second section with
the declaration, “Now I am lake”. A lake, like a mirror, represents and has depth, and
both portray a woman seeking for herself, maybe like Narcissus. This woman could
also portray Plath and women in general and they are unable to deal with what
they observe in the mirror and they are turning to those liars like candles. Lighting
candles and moonlight represent the feminine and they cast shadows that
disguise and expose. They can misrepresent while the mirror maintains its original
shape, mirroring precisely what is in front of it. In the poem, the mirror says. “I
see her back and reflect it faithfully”. Even though it horrifies and scares her as
the woman is drawn to it and goes to the lake. Plath’s use of glass imagery also
represents the packing of the authentic self. In the poem, “Mirror”, for example,
glass both conceals and reflects the person’s authentic identity and she has gone
to the lake. She has got the fear of concealing and reflecting the authentic identity
of her beauty. Plath depicts an internalized counterpart of the going-to-watch
awareness in the poem and she is narrating a life span of conversations with a
nameless, faceless woman who sees signs of aging as mutilation. She investigates
the impact of time, age, and the waste of youth using a mirror. Although the
speaker of the poem is the mirror, the true hero is the woman as an object who
observes oneself both in and as a mirror (Schwartz 70). The speaker as a female reveals her
inner fear that is being lost day to day because of old age she does not trust in the reflection of the
mirror and she seeks her beauty in the lake.

“She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes (Plath)”.
These two lines of the poem depict how much sad she is by the loss of her beauty. she is terrified and
scared so much that she can not see her own face reflected in the lake and she weeps and cries over the
lake. She is with the river of tears dropping into the lake and she is even agitating with her hands. Lake
has become essential for her to know her true beauty and she regularly visits there. Her fear is beyond

her control and she has turned out to be conscious of her beauty as it is said consciousness and
knowledge are the main causes of fear (Subba 47). If she did not have knowledge about the loss of her
beauty with age, she would not go to the lake as a routine. Hence, she is fear-stricken and feels restless.
“Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness (Plath)”. She reaches the lake each morning and
bends over it to know how much ugly she is seen as reflected in the image of the lake. Her face replaces
the darkness in the lake by eliminating the sunlight and the light of the morning.

“In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish (Plath)”.
The mirrors are the best friends of those who are conscious about the beauty and attractive images they
wish to deserve as the speaker in the poem does. The woman has drowned in the mirror from a very
young age when she was a girl and even now when she has become an old woman. She visits the lake in
her old age day after day. She has been found like a terrible fish. It indicates how she has scared,
terrified, horrified, and afraid of losing her beauty in her old age. It has conveyed that she has been too
much scared and it has troubled her own physical health. She could not balance her fear within its
limitation. She did not have to be scared as much as she did. Her extreme fear led her to depression and
she became the victim of her own unnecessary fear. So, she committed suicide and fear has acted
negatively in her life. Plath became the victim of her extreme fear. The question is, what does she see in
the mirror that keeps her returning, fascinated day after day despite how unhappy she is by it? What is
it that she sees in the depths of the mirror that scares her? It could be age, inevitably transforming her
into a fish. Metaphorically, the fish occupies both the depths and the spirit, which may be what Plath
was drawn to but could not admit(Schwartz 71). The mirror in the poem represents the image of a
woman as a reflector of the other to itself. Plath’s double image of herself as a colorfully silvered surface
discloses a devilish form in both the mirror and the fish as represented in it. The mirror is the
magnificent persona Plath showed to the world as both a woman and a poet, the strict and firmly
disciplined performer who glitteringly completed all anticipations, a perfect mirror of obtained parental
and social standards of elegance, charm, and success. It is her social cast; artistic, frozen in a Cover Girl
smile, a perfect glimpse of the feminine ideal (Schwartz 71). The role of beauty-seeking tendency
became self-harming and deteriorating for the speaker herself in the poem. Beauty cannot be ever-
lasting and the search for beauty in old age and its extreme fear led her to take her life herself.
The poem’s first line reveals the consequences of a woman going to spend all of her
time in front of a mirror; she has wasted her youth, and drowned it in the depths of her
own reflection, much like Narcissus. One of the poem's main points is that being thrown
away into narcissism is a waste of time and energy. Mirrors do not make a judgment,
but simply "swallow," implying that whatever is reflected in them is irretrievable and lost
forever. Furthermore, the mirror is designed to reflect a wall. The woman has become a
non-entity as a result of her non-being and lack of self-definition for so long. She is
insignificant, a part of the various faces as well as the darkness that differentiates them.
It has been advised that extreme fear does not have positive outcomes. It can rather
tend to be self-destructive and detrimental to life.

The study intends to draw attention to Plath’s serious depression and identify the mental disorder as a
result of patriarchal and societal stereotypes. The outcome demonstrates that hysteria symptoms such
as depersonalization limited her existence and drove her to commit suicide (Ghlib, 2593) The
poetess’s depression has been reflected in her poem and it has demonstrated how she
has been forced to commit suicide.

Conclusion
The effect of fear in beauty has been found devastating, detrimental, and life-taking. The
speaker of the poem “Mirror” has explored the poetess, Sylvia Plath herself though the mirror
has been presented as the narrator in the poem. The mirror is the poetess’s own persona and
she has reflected the pain and fear in the process of seeking her beauty both in the mirror of
her bedroom wall and in the lake in the first and the second stanzas respectively. As the
poetess has found her beauty getting vanished with her old age, she has developed a kind of
doubt with the mirror concealing her factual identity and she has attempted to trace out her
real appearance in the lake. However, she has found no difference in her facial appearance and
beauty even in the lake and she has been found in the depth of her mental agonies and her
melancholic situation led her to depression. As a result, she has found no alternative solution of
replacing her beauty except committing suicide. Her fear turned extreme and it has been found
beyond her control and she has been victimized by her own extreme fear. The persona of the
poem has found that her conflict between the inner self and outer self, guided by fear led her
to mutilate herself. Fear horrified, traumatized, scared and led her depersonalized condition to
the persona of the poem and she became restless in maintaining her beauty in society even in
her old age. It was beyond her capacity as a mortal being and it must have been realized as the
natural process of life. Fear has acted rather dreadfully and negatively in the life of the persona
of the poem “Mirror” and it has compelled her to take her own life in vain. Hence, it has given
the message that fear must be within a balanced form rather than the extreme one for a
meaningful, worthwhile, and successful life. Otherwise, extreme fear acts to ruin the entire goal
and life itself as it has acted in the life of the poetess, Sylvia Plath. She has been found seeking
external beauty rather than internal one and it has been found unnatural in old age. Internal
beauty is gained with learning skills, enhancing knowledge and wisdom but external beauty is
natural and innate but it fades away with the passing of time. To fear such perishing external
beauty ruins life. So, it has to be accepted what nature has bestowed on mortal beings.

Works cited:
Bogan, Louise “Medusa” Creative Delights. Compiled and edited by Shreedhar Lohani and
Rameshwor Adhikari. Ratna Pustak Bhandar, Kathmandu. 1997.pp 380-381.
Conway, Cathleen Allyn. Through the Looking Glass: A Discussion of Doubling in Sylvia Plath's "Mirror",
University of Greenwich, London. file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/FEAR%20IN%20BAEUTY/4672-
Article%20Text-14468-1-10-2013123.
Devkota, Laxmi Prasad. “The lunatic” Creative Delights. Compiled and edited by shreedhar,
Lohani, and Rameshwor Adhikari. Ratna Pustak Bhandar, Kathmandu.1997. pp.332-338.
Freedman, William. "The Monster in Plath's 'Mirror'." Papers on Language and Literature 108.5 (1993):
152-169.
Ghalib, Atef, et al. Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education Vol.12 No. 11 (2021), 2592-
2597 Research Article 2592 Sylvia Plath Revisited in the Lens of Depersonalization. Thi-Qar University,
Iraq. file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/FEAR%20IN%20BAEUTY/6257-Article%20Text-11537-1-10-
20210513.pdf
https://image,slidesharecdn.com (a poem by Sylvia Plath)
Kroll, J. Chapters in Science of Mythology: The poetry of Sylvia Plath. New York: Harper &Row. 1978.
http://www.gradesaver.com/sylvia-plath-poems/study-guide/summary-mirro.
Lohami Shreedhar and Rameshwor Adhikari. Creative Delights. Ratna Pustak Bhandar,
Kathmandu.1997. pp.338.
McCort, Jessica. Sleeping Beauty Awake: Sylvia Plath through the Looking-Glass.
file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/FEAR%20IN%20BAEUTY/4376-Article%20Text-13845-1-10-20131219.pdf.
Russell, Bertrand “Keeping Errors at Bay,” Flax-Golden Tales: An Interdisciplinary
Approach to learning English. Compiled and edited by Moti Nishani and Shreedher
Lohani. Ekta Books, Kathmandu. 2008. pp.373.
Schwartz, Susan. Disenchantment, Disillusion, and Dissolution in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath.
file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/FEAR%20IN%20BAEUTY/DepthInsights-Issue5-Fall2013.pdf.
Schwartz, Susan E. Sylvia Plath: A Split in the Mirror.
file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/FEAR%20IN%20BAEUTY/4437-Article%20Text-13973-1-10-20131223.pdf,
Sontag Susan:” Beauty”: The Creative Delights. Compiled and edited by Shreedhar
Lohani and Rameshwar Adhikari. Ratna Pustak Bhandar, kathmandu. 1997. pp.300.
Subba, Desh. Philosophy of fears: life is conducted, directed, and controlled by fear.
Xlibris. 2014. pp.47.

[note: the percentages, are given based on testing values, and they approximate the % of USA population roughly operating in that worldview] 

With our current "Culture Wars" re: Value and values, and political debates on which is the better way to go for society--there, is a need to step back and look at the bigger picture of value-memes (as one form of worldview analysis [1]). The diagram above is an integral theory mapping of 3 major worldviews (or value-memes). This diagram is useful on many levels, although, I understand it would need a much more nuanced discussion and teaching around what are wordviews and/or value-memes (in Spiral Dynamics theory and Integral Theory). That said, it is still a good quick map for seeing what has been going on in the world of conflicts, "Culture Wars" and "Paradigm Wars" etc. in the last 50 years or so. There is a dangerous heating up in conflicts between these worldviews. There is fear-based thinking and values in each of these worldviews shown here, and there is also good healthy non-fear-based thinking and values. The issue is understanding perspectives that they each bring to society and our problems. How will we work with this conflict and fear in each of these? I find that a really interesting and serious issue, and I have studied Integral Theory for over 40 years. 

The next diagram shows a fourth worldview (value-meme) called "Integral" (perspective)--that is, where "Developmentalists" as thinkers are attempting to analyze and solve the world's big problems from. This is where I've situated my thinking and theory, i.e., the location of Fearlessness (as aperspectival-integral consciousness or Fear Management System-7). This next diagram shows the way to approach dealing with all the differences and conflicts, and similarities, in the other worldviews (value-memes), and how an integral-developmentalist approach is probably the best way to go overall--which, would be non-fear-based. A larger topic... but here is the diagram offered: 

Acknowledgements

Thanks to those at the Institute for Cultural Evolution for the summary diagram above, from their website. 

Endnotes

1. Note, that worldview analysis comes in many varieties and this is only one way shown here. Another powerful critical postcolonialist worldview theory is proposed by Four Arrows (Dr. D. T. Jacobs) where there are only two meta-worldviews operating "Dominant worldview" (global and Western)--and, "Indigenous worldview." The latter, as Four Arrows argues is really the only foundational worldview that offers a healthy, sane and sustainable worldview. Developmentalists (integralists) typically avoid integrating such a critique. Four Arrows agrees, as would many integralists, that "fearlessness" is the basis of the worldview that is propogated as emancipatory. 

This is front page of the Fearology Center, my newest venture and collaboration as I join with John Coleman, founder of Apocatastasis Institute for the Humanities in Connecticut, USA. For a brief description of the Fearology Center as part of my TFI venture, go to: Fearology Center and go to: for my Staff (Bio.) page R. Michael Fisher. (contact: r.michaelfisher52 [at] gmail.com)

Take a look at the APOC Institute while browsing as it has some interesting things going on in the alternative higher education field. I'll keep you all informed on the FM ning as things progress with this new venture. 

For the entire speech of her announcement go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onSa2UF8_kI

There isn't another leader, not in the century, maybe not ever, that speaks the philosophical and ethical wisdom [1] of Williamson in the political sphere. It is a good example of the spirit of fearlessness in action--in the political landscape. 

To see her political policies platform go to:marianne2024.com

Endnotes

1. In particular, I am referring to her long interest in the "Love vs. Fear Problem"--of which, I have researched and written and published on for decades. This is no small philosophical-theological and psychological problem, with all the cultural and social and economic aspects of it so relevant today. 

Hey, wanted to share my latest video from my Youtube channel entitled "Marianne Williamson 2024 Has Started: Leader of Nonviolence" 

Marianne has officially announced her candidacy to run for President of the USA in 2024. I talk about a number of qualities she brings to the political sphere but also beyond that in terms of her emancipatory project for humanity and this planet. She is a very unique leader. I am most taken with her putting "fear" and "love" at the center of her philosophy, spirituality and politics. 

I also share my new project to support this movement, she represents, and have named it the Canadian Coalition for Marianne 2024. 

Some existential theorists and practitioners (e.g., therapists) have argued for a positive kind of anxiety, vs. a destructive kind that paralyzes and kills us. My long interest in these discourses on anxiety (another word for fear)--is a troubled one, where I have critiques of the way the existentialists deal with fear and this binary. That said, you can check out this quote (from a brand new book by Schneider) on his viewpoint--short extract below: 

[note: "Becker" is highlighted, as he is my favorite of the existentialists, and that is Ernest Becker--of whom, was the philosophical 

thinker beneath the 1980's social psychology project of Terror Management Theory, the latter also well worth investigating if you 

are at all interested to know more about "fear" in the social realm of behavior.] 

[quote from p. 5, from Schneider, K. J. (2023). Life-enhancing anxiety: Key to a sane world. University Professors Press.]

Addendum: 

 I/we have been preparing for your birth. I stand in awe and anticipation of this mystery that is unfolding. A spectrum of fear studies seems to be touching into the essence of the Fearlessness movement, I do believe.

wrote, Janet Sheppard, July 18, 2018 responding to TFI. 

Some of you may know, or not, that since 2018 I had founded The Fearology Institute (TFI) as another of my string of venture possibilities to get the fire lit beneath people to take seriously that we have to better figure out a relationship with Fear if we ever want to help this world get out of the ditch it has been riding and crashing in for many many years. Of course, some will say just add Love (some say, Courage) to the world and it will improve. Philosophically, that Love to be really effective has to be dialectically also based on not just good intentions but a really deep study and education in Fear. 

So, founding The Fearology Institute was one way, my latest venture, to attempt to offer a university grade education, for starters, in Fearology--which is the foundational basis of a systematic study of the nature and role of fear in human evolution. Fearology = the study of fear in relation to life. So, that's the simple definition but then things get really complex as one deep dives into that topic and takes seriously that fearology ought to be as familiar and prevalent in its impacts as biology, psychology or any other disciplined way of researching and understanding something about reality--about ourselves. For a quick overview of TFI program, see my latest talk on it in some detail at: Becoming a Fearologist

[Note: the 3 streams of TFI originally: (a) scholarly and research, (b) professional development, (c) activism; and, a 4th and 5th I would like to add in this new iteration of TFI is (d) parents/caregivers and (e) students/learners. 

That's how important Fear is as a topic, subject--and, yes, it is equally all about ourselves--about our own psyche, and collective psyche and our own social-cultural self, our conditioning, our entrancements in the malaise of politics, economics, our worldviews, and all aspects of living today and how are we going to live in the future in a sane, healthy and sustainable way.

Fearology is a 'new' way to study this all and yes, it ought to be legitimated as just as important as any other study. It ought to be in all highschool curriculum as an option, it ought to have diploma and degree programs all over the world in post-secondary education. But even beyond that, it ought to be available also in popularized forms of education online, in our communities in many forms. You can see this is a huge project I envisioned. 

But reality is, since 2018, it has been a hard pitch to convince people of this need for humanity. I'm roused again, and again, to attempt to share it with folks and ask for support in getting this going--rubber hitting the pavement--and having a real impact. The diagram above is a screen shot from the resources page of what is available on "Fearology" that I have put together for years, to access those free documents and youtube channel presentations on fearology,

go to: https://prism.ucalgary.ca/discover?query=fearology

Let's keep on this topic and venture possibility, and have discussions, and see what is possible. Of course, you can also have critiques and pushback, etc., I am all open ears to this, when it is intended for correction and growth. I just know, that a great potential sits waiting for a world/consciousness/worldview ready to 'see' what I see--and, what is potentially a new field of study, profession and practice for those from all walks of life. Contact me: r.michaelfisher52@gmail.com 

The FM ning is also a good platform for discussion. If you search in the upper left box of the FM ning, "fearology" you will also find a whole lot of material on TFI and other fearology posts there. There's no shortage of readily (free) materials available to learn from and explore. I'm ready to lght the fire again, but I can't do it alone. 

Endorsement(s)

Historical Background for the Project(s)

For a few decades I've had an impulse and vision and budding passion to make a grand synthesis of all humankind's knowledge on Fear. After various fits and starts at different forms of research and writing, none ever published, I saw that I had not the resources or energy and time and space in my life to accomplish this. I sought out other's to help with this project and envisioned several volumes would be needed to cover the topic. 

By the time I had finished my graduate school years (1998-2003), it struck me that I just had to publish a compendium of (at least) all the theories on Fear, and make some kind of classification of them, if not some critique. I began that research and building more forms for arranging this material but quickly, again, I realized it would be an exhaustive project to do alone and I even wondered at that point, with less enthusiasm than when I was younger, IF such a project would even been read or appreciated by the readers of the day. I concluded also that it would end up being quite a "negative" sounding set of volumes--as Fear is still perceived mostly negatively by humanity. So, I put the idea away and after several experiences working with a shawoman in Vancouver, doing healing work, a vision came to me. It would be better to research and write a compendium on what the world teachings are on FEARLESSNESS. Thus, a few years later, I published an ambitious (albeit, not exhaustive) volume, The World's Fearlessness Teachings [1]. 

That was 13 years ago. It's the best resource available for humanity on Fearlessness as a topic but also on my theorizing. I was less negative in outlook with addressing the Fear Problem humanity is facing and not well dealing with. The book title itself seemed more positive--fearlessness. All those things led to my great expectation for a great book to be recognized and utilized by humankind. This did not happen. No one has ever done a systematic in depth book review. And, the disappointments go on and on since it was published. I was not working in an academic institution, so as an independent scholar with no extra money to mass advertise this, and the publisher did little in distribution, I was left with a book that sold few copies and was 'dead in the water'. Which, didn't mean I was completely dispirited. Always, in the back of my mind, and I mention it in the Preface of The World's Fearlessness Teachings, that someday, I will write a companion two-set volumes on (a) The World's Fear Teachings -- a version of a kind of Summa Fearolgical (playing off the grand project of St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century with his Summa Theologica) and, (b) a friendly smaller popular version of both the essence findings of The World's Fearlessness Teachings and The World's Fear Teachings. 

Books of World Great Ideas

The World's Fear Teachings, encyclopedic kind of enterprise I initiated, soon ended, re-started [2] ...and again ran out of 'gas' at several points over these years. And still it is not near able to hobble out of my old files and basement and see the light of day. I realized I would need several assistant researchers and secretaries to help with this project and preferrably some big publisher interested too, whom would provide the pre-publication funding and support to make this come about. Of course, I dream of some angel donor coming along and paying for such a massive project. I have not found any of these supports yet. 

It was only this past month that I found a good book to read, which is an intellectual autobiography by Adler, entitled Mortimer J. Adler: Philosopher At Large, by Mortimer Adler (1902-1976) [3]. Adler inspired me and he shared about St. Thomas Aquinas's massive project to summarize all the great knowledge on certain topics in the 13th century work, Summa Theologica. Adler had an encyclopedic mind for collecting and organizing, classifying and analyzing human knowledge. It made me think more vividly that I have in my own humble way being trying to construct a Summa Fearologica (a term that I just coined while thinking of writing this blog). The essence of Aquinas, and then the modern Adler, was to validate there are great ideas of universal interest and wisdom to pass on from generations, knowledge from grand scope and depth, and summarized for others to read and study and apply to their current times. I definitely have always wanted to do that with the Great Idea: Fear (and Fearlessness). 

Back in 2004 when Corey Robin, a political historian at NYU, published his book Fear: The History of an Idea [4], this notion of "fear" being cast as an "idea" and not merely as an emotion, feeling (as psychology and philosophy and theology have done for centuries)--was very radical and I attempted to have conversations with Robin over emails but soon that was not mutually fruitful and my ambitions to be supported by someone in academia fell off again. I yet, knew that there was something there to continue to promote and re-think about. So, in the end, that is what I am putting forth to the world once again. Writing this blog to let you all know. The Summa Fearologica is real in my imaginary and I'd like to pass that on to others. Someday, maybe this will manifest, before I die or after. 

Addendum 1: 

In my current research/writing with Prof. Arie Kizel (Univ. of Haifa, Israel), we are going to attempt to write on the topic of "pedagogy of fear" as a concept (big idea) and analyze it. I have proposed to him, with his agreement to pursue it, that we include a section of that book on pedagothealogy. This large awkward sounding term is my formation of a pedagogy + theology perspective toward the nature and role of fear. Stayed tuned for more on that venture. 

Addendum 2: 

Do we need a 'Fear' Bible? [go to my article several years ago: https://fearlessnessmovement.ning.com/blog/big-d-discourse-do-we-need-a-fear-bible

Endnotes

1. Fisher, R. M. (2010). The world's fearlessness teachings: A critical integral approach to fear management/education for the 21st century. Lanham, MD: University Press of American/Rowman & Littlefied. 

2. I have never, since late 1989 found any publisher in the wide-world interested in publishing my "fear" books until 2022. However, when I found a publisher for my book The Fear Problematique--a book specifically dedicated to philosophy of education in a culture of fear today, it was a first of such sincere interest.. Thanks to Information Age Publishing, this book ought to come out on the shelves in the end of 2023 if all goes well. As far as the world's fear teachings, the most I got done was the rudimentary beginning of what I was calling The 'Fear' Encyclopedia. And it stalled; but I did publish in 1998 very small version of a 'Fear' Encyclopedia, which I self-published just as photocopied text and a cheap spiral bound booklet. This latter book really should have been entitled a 'Fear' Vocabulary. It has a good amount of research on words modifying "fear" and words "analogous" to fear that exist in English language. And, I explain each of them as part of humanity better understanding the "Kinds of Fear" that exist and with the aim of establishing a "Fear Nomenclature" as part of "Establishing a Common Language" for humanity (at least in English language). It was my fascination with taxonomies that led this book to be of some value. Again, I could not promote this book well and it went no where in public circulation; albeit, I have 14 copies of it in my library at home. All these self-published efforts are published by the Canadian publishing house, In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute (owned by R. M. Fisher and B. Bickel, registered since c. 1991). 

3. Adler, M. J. (1977/92). Mortimer J. Adler: Philosopher at large: An intellectual autobiography. NY: Collier Books. 

4. Robin, C. (2004). Fear: The history of an idea. NY: Oxford University Press. 

Any philosophical inquiry into "fear" (with as diverse of meanings that it has)--has to include a historical and philosophical look at what people (e.g., like Hobbes) have done with the notion of "fear." In modern W. thought/philosophy, Thomas Hobbes (18th century) is a leading figure in this reconstruction. Today, there are a few thinkers, like myself, also involved in deconstructions and reconstructions of "fear." I just found this Abstract of a paper in Russian, that I wish was in English, because it looks fascinating, so I thought I would share the Abstract here (published in 2017 in Journal of Philosophy 21(4), 602-11. 

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Certainly this raises interesting questions, as part of a discourse and set of debates (mostly in social philosophy) as to what is the nature and role of "fear" in human societies and what should it be for optimal and healthy functioning? I think Hobbes, amongst others, was trying to make a more positive association for fear and even for adopting a fear-based positioning in terms of motivational priorities in the ways to construct a so-called rational (modern state)--society. There are lots of problems in my way of thinking about this strategy on his part, and it seems this Russian academic also has his problems with Hobbes. 

In my own Fear Management Systems theory (FMST), I have classified this fear-positivism manouever as 'common' for the last few hundred years, and especially common in the late 20th century into the 21st century. But I have also noted, both its valuable contribution and its potential pathological shadow dimension, based on FMST. Hobbesian thinking is a means of fear management itself--that is, a system of understanding and managing fear--with a particular agenda, in a particular historical and ideological context. Thus, it is not so simple to just say, oh, now we have not just irrational fear (the common view)--but there is a rational fear too. Not so simple, and that move of Hobbes and many others who follow this fear-positivism ideology do not even realize they are using an ideology to construct within, in order to rationalize "fear" and that itself can be very problematic for a lot of reasons, beyond the scope of my short blogpost here. I classify Hobbesian fear-thinking (philosophy) as FMS-4 --based on a spectrum of FMSs (i.e., fear management systems evolved from the beginning of human consciousness, history and before)--whereby, I see the spectrum having 10 identifiable FMSs 0-9. For more on my classification system, you can go to Fisher (2010). 

Reference

Fisher, R. M. (2010). The world's fearlessness teachings: A critical integral approach to fear management/education for the 21st century. Lanham, MD.: University Press of America/Rowman & Littlefield.

Professor Arie Kizel, Ph.D., Vice-Dean for Teaching, Head, Pedagogical Development of Educational Systems MA Program
Dept. of Learning and Instructional Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel and 
Co-founder and President, Mediterranean Association for Philosophy with Children; current Editor, Studies in Education: J. of Study and Research in Education [Hebrew] and he serves on the Board of Reviewers of International Journal of Fear Studies. 

Dr. Kizel and I have been connecting for the last few years around the importance of teaching about the nature and role of fear in education generally, philosophy of education, and more recently in teacher education specifically.

He and I have both utilized the concept of "pedagogy of fear" in which we use the term as a negative form of pedagogy that is not liberational. I wanted to introduce him and his work to the FM ning community because it is rare in my experience to find any professional educator (especially, in a mainstream university) who has taught about the pedagogy of fear and the difficulties in changing it. Kizel, is rare in the field, in having written three+ articles on "fear" directly and being committed to advancing the profile of this problem and approach to education. I so appreciate that effort. Recently, we have decided to co-author a book on this topic (in progress). 

I am also excited to work with him because of his past 15 years or so researching and publishing on important topics in the field of Education, as he has developed expertise in the history of Israeli education (e.g., textbook analysis and revision), and he studies problems of totalitarianism, the Holocaust, monologizm and how to bring about pluralistic humanizing narratives back into education; he has become a world-recognized leader in dialogical pedagogy and ethical issues regarding philosophy and children; he explores how to better respect children (e.g., critiquing adult fear-projection of shadow conflicts and overall pathologizing of children) and their rights--and, how to teach philosophy with children, alternative education and mainstream education borders of exchanges, philosophical inquiry generally, Jewish-Arab affairs from an educational (historical, political) perspective and how to make education more inclusive, including those with special needs. I am most interested in his work to build a healthy sense of meaning and concomitant responsibility in teachers and learners across the board.

I appreciate his engagement at times with "counter-education" philosophies as in with his colleague Ilan Gur-Ze'ev and others. These have been issues that have long interested me as a critical, creative and caring educator going back into the late 1970s onward. As being someone who teaches teachers how to think better, it is inspiring to know he is out there and influencing teachers who will go out into the school systems and beyond schools, influencing democratic and civic society. Kizel is an eclectic educator to watch in the future and learn from and I am curious how his views of "fear" (and fearlessness) will grow over the years. 

For those interested go to his blog for a listing of all his publications: https://ariekizel.blogspot.com/

References re: explicit Pedagogy of Fear topic by Arie Kizel 

__2015. Pedagogy of fear as paralyzing men's questions. In Yesiayahu Tadmor and Amir Frayman (eds.), Education--Men's Questions (pp. 214-23). Tel Aviv: Mofet [Hebrew]

__2016. Pedagogy out of fear of philosophy as a way of pathologizing children. J. of Unschooling and Alternative Learning, 10(20), 28-47.

__2021. Philosophy w/ children as a way of overcoming the 'shadow adults cast over childhood' and the 'pedagogy of fear.' International Journal of Fear Studies, 3(2), 13-24.

__(Ed.) 2023. Philosophy with children and teacher education: Global perspectives on critical, creative and caring thinking. Routledge. [see specifically his "Pedagogy of Fear" (pp. xii-xxv) and "The Fear at the Heart of the Pedagogy of Fear" (pp. xxvi-xxix) in Editor Introduction.] 

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