“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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