Fear, Anxiety, and Psychopathic Diseases

The causation of all psychopathic diseases can be referred to one fundamental instinct, the instinct of fear with its concomitant manifestation, the feeling of anxiety. Fear is one of the most primitive instincts of animal life. What we find on examination of the psychogenesis of psychopathic cases, and especially of psychoneurotic cases, is the presence of the fear instinct which may become associated with some important interest of life. This interest may be physical in regard to the bodily functions, or the interest may be sexual, social, it may be one of ambition in life, or it may be of a general character referring to the loss of personality or even to the loss of mind...