Friday, 5 May 2017

VII - Acrophobia: The Fear of High Places


“Acrophobia is another very clear demonstration of the complex set up by the simultaneous fear of and desire for self-destruction. The sufferer fears high places both because he is afraid to fall and afraid also that he will not be able to keep himself from the wild leap that means release. It would be impossible here to enter into all the contributing factors that go to make up this phobia. Various ideas, however, that are implicit in our civilization, suggest themselves. The story of Lucifer, the heaven-aspiring, which we all learned as children, is the object-lesson of the fate that awaits the too proud and arrogant, and the Biblical injunction that ‘pride goeth before a fall, and a haughty spirit before destruction’ is always with us. Again, the struggle for success – that is, the struggle towards the heights – is the very foundation stone of our social life, and in the acrophobiac it may be only the fear of differentiation from his fellows that creates this complex. To climb is not difficult for those who have the determination, but horror unspeakable attends the backward look of the timid man. Among my acquaintances is an unsuccessful actor who can never live in an apartment or a hotel room above the second storey. Should he be obliged to occupy a higher room, he spends the night lying on the floor and grasping the foot of the bed with both hands to prevent himself jumping out of the window.

“The victim of any phobia always projects himself in the act of accomplishing the very thing he fears. In my drawing I have represented the acrophobiac hurtling through the emptiness, rushing to destroy himself.”

John Vassos
New York City
May 25th, 1931

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