The Concept of Fear-Conclusion
Within the journey of this research I realized that there are many different approaches on the emotion of fear and I came to understand the complexity of it. In the beginning I struggled to grasp the various points of views from academic writings and scientists and I got lost within these complex ideas. I decided that the academic point of views on this topic become quickly too complicated and therefore more unimportant. So I managed to keep this part of my thesis rather short and tried to write about more personal and raw ideas on the topic, which came mainly from my findings of the broad visual research. I am very happy that the children’s drawings and ideas became such a big part of this piece of writing and that I could give them their deserved space within this thesis.

“As an artist you can say that something means this and something means that, so what is real? If nothing is true, everything is true.”
(J. Hedva, personal communication, December 10, 2020)

When I was a child, I always thought there is only one true meaning to things, one correct understanding of the world. I always thought grown-ups and people in power ‘know it all’ and have it all figured out. This ‘perfect’ idea of the world changes when you grow up. While many different factors have potential to influence the way we experience fear, a common theme that connects all of them is our sense of control. When we are able to recognize what is and isn’t a real threat, we are ultimately at a place where we feel in control. This reminds me of what this twelve year old girl wrote on one of the drawings: “Everything that the human being cannot tame and control, he is afraid of.” It is ultimately the unknown future, the uncontrollable disease, the uncertainty that makes us feel scared–these are all abstract fears.

The older you get, the more experience you have, the more abstract and untouchable your fears become. There is the four year old child who is afraid of the big dog or the bee that stings. But there is the senior who is afraid of loneliness and loss, complex untouchable stages of life.

Fear has many different shapes. Fear takes multiple forms. Fear has no boundaries. Fear is real and illusion at the same time.

Within the course of this thesis I came to understand that there is not one true meaning of fear, more-so there are many. These ideas on fears have each been constructed within their specific context, traditions, cultures, places and people. Different people can be afraid or unafraid of the same thing, depending on their context, personality and background, seeing that fear is such a subjective and personal emotion. As they are developed they are being formed or unformed by those conditions and imposed power structures.

As Plato correctly stated: “ignorance is the root of misfortune” 31 , and as long as we remain naive towards the evidence that those who claim and assure us that they are protecting us, are actually using this powerful emotion of fear for their own benefit, then we continue to be a part of our world through our ignorant conformity.