The Psychology of Fear and the Effects of Panic Fear in War Time

Abstract

It is an acknowledged fact that in the whole annals of mankind the most eventful period of a nation's psychology is that during which its people is passing through the crisis of war, and the history of nations, from the earliest dawn of society, presents continuous records of warlike operations. The present war, which has already lasted over two and a half years and which is without any immediate prospect of cessation, has disturbed the mind and altered the course of life of whole continents; yet all of us are agreed that it should never be possible for this “malady of princes” to occur again, and it is with the view of preventing its recurrence that civilisation (which means the united culture of all the Allies as well as of the “benevolent” neutrals) is now making a final and intense effort.