Friday 1 September 2017

IX - Batophobia: The Fear of Falling Objects


“This is another variation of the punishment complex. Instead of an act of nature (the delusion of the astrophobiac) punishing the sinner, it is man-made objects that here threaten the guilty soul with annihilation. A resentful power hurls at him an astonishing barrage from high buildings, scaffoldings, ceilings, walls, even from the sky itself. Crushed beneath heavy stones, he thinks to expiate nobly what he has secretly enjoyed. There is even an element of exhibitionism that enters here, and he fears death both for itself and because it will deprive him of the harrowing pleasure of his mental pantomime.

“There is a certain dream-like quality in my illustration. It is all unreal – the graphic projection of punishment by a diseased mind. Nothing is fixed, nothing stable. The world in which he has his being is in conflict and chaotic. Even the very stars are falling.”

John Vassos
New York City
May 25th, 1931

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