120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 64

Chapter 4 Section 4 Fear

[Russia] Dostoevsky
He suddenly remembered that the purse and things he had taken from the old woman were still in his pockets and hadn't been hidden... He immediately ran to take them out and threw them on the table.When he got everything out...he took the whole pile to the corner.At the base of the wall, the paper had cracked somewhere, and right away he started stuffing everything into that hole in the paper.

"It's all in! The purse is out of sight!" he thought cheerfully, standing up and staring blankly at the hole.Suddenly, the hole seemed to bulge, and he trembled with fright. "God!" he muttered in despair, "what's the matter with me? Is this hiding? Is this the way to hide things?"... He sat down on the sofa exhausted, and immediately lost his temper There was an uncomfortable tremor.He mechanically fetched his old and warm but tattered student winter coat from a chair beside him and covered himself, and after a while, he lost consciousness.

In less than 5 minutes, he jumped up suddenly, and immediately rushed to grab his clothes frantically. "How could I go to sleep without doing anything? Yes, yes, I haven't got the slipknot off the sleeve yet! I forgot, for such a thing! Such a fact!"

He tore the slipknot off, tore it hastily to shreds, and stuffed the rags into the shirt under the pillow. "At any rate, the fragments of the torn shirt will not arouse suspicion. Anyway, I don't think so, I don't think so!" he repeated, standing in the middle of the room and looking around him again with desperate concentration. , the floor and everywhere, he wanted to find out if there were any traces of the crime in the house.He thought that all his abilities were gone, even memory and the simplest ability to think. This conviction gradually became an embarrassing pain. "Has it already begun? Hasn't the punishment come upon me? It is coming!" The frayed rags he cut from his trousers were indeed on the floor in the middle of the room, and anyone who came in would see it! "What's the matter with me!" he cried again, like a man out of his wits.

Suddenly, a terrible thought came to his mind again, thinking that perhaps all the clothes were stained with blood, perhaps there were many spots of blood, but he didn't see it, didn't notice it, because he was insensible and torn to pieces. It's gone... His rationality is blurred... He suddenly remembered that there was blood on the purse too! "Ah! Then there must be blood on the pocket too, because I put the wet money bag in it then!" He turned the pocket inside out in the blink of an eye, yes!There are marks and stains on the pocket linen! "It can be seen that I have not completely lost my reason, and it can be seen that I still have some brains and memory, because I guessed it myself." He thought triumphantly, and sighed deeply, "It's just a fever, weakness, Just a brief coma."

He ripped the entire lining out of the left pocket of his trousers.At this time, the sun was shining on his left boot, and there seemed to be blood on the sock protruding from the broken boot!He took off his boots. "There are indeed traces! The toe of the sock is soaked in blood." He must have accidentally stepped into the pool of blood at that time... "But what about this matter now? Where should I put the socks, rags and bags? "

He held these things in both hands and stood in the middle of the room. "In the stove? But they're going to search the stove first. Burn them? But what can I burn them with? Not even matches. No, go out and throw them somewhere. Yes." , it’s better to throw it away.” He repeated, but sat down on the sofa. "And throw it right away, without delay!" But instead his head fell on the pillow.He shivered uncomfortably again, his whole body was limp, and he had no energy at all.

He wanted to get up several times, and wanted to throw away those eye-catching things immediately, but he seemed to be paralyzed on the sofa, and he shouted in his heart: "Right away, right away..." At this moment, there was a loud knock on the door, Finally made him fully awake.

【Together with you】

There is a certain difference between normal fear and morbid fear. Freud gave a wonderful explanation: a person is in the African jungle and feels fear when he sees a snake. Fear is good for self-protection.But if a person lives in a room he is also afraid, thinking that in his room a snake is hiding under the rug.Then, we can say that this fear is pathological and abnormal.Freud's theory is extremely helpful for understanding human psychology, and this theory can be used to examine the fear psychology of ordinary people.If a mother in a poor African country fears that her child will starve to death, the fear is normal; but in the United States, if a rich mother tells someone that her child will starve to death from malnutrition, This fear is pathological and abnormal.In fact, this kind of panic may be rooted in her usual guilt, anxiety, panic and hatred.

There are many people in the world who live in constant fear of imagining.

Fear can shorten a person's lifespan, because it can impair a person's physiology, can change the chemical organization of various parts of the body, and can cause premature aging and even premature death.I don't know how many people in the world have been unjustly sent to their graves by the devil of fear!It destroys the balance of human psychology and causes countless human tragedies.

Fear is the most harmful thing, it does not benefit human beings at all.A person full of all kinds of fears is not a "person" in the true sense.

Reject your fears as you would any other bad habit that could be harmful to you.We can counteract our fears with a variety of remedies—confident, courageous, optimistic thoughts.Don't let fear take hold in your heart, don't think about fear.As soon as there is a fear mentality, when the medicine is used immediately, the fear will immediately flee.No matter how "entrenched" a fear may be, it can always be dislodged by the opposite method.When you seek your "big self", your goodness hides: this desire is in each of you.

But for some people, this kind of longing is a rush to the sea, carrying with it the mystery of the mountains and the eulogy of the trees.

(End of this chapter)