Superstitions, and especially the early cultivation of religion, with its "fear of the Lord" and of unknown mysterious agencies, are especially potent in the development of the instinct of fear. Even the early cultivation of morality and conscientiousness, with their fears of right and wrong, often causes psychoneurotic states in later life. Religious, social, and moral taboos and superstitions, associated with apprehension of threatening impending evil, based on the fear instinct, form the germs of psychopathic affections.
Boris SidisHuman institutions depend for their existence and stability on the impulse of self-preservation and its close associate, - the fear instinct.
Boris SidisThe psycho-physiological hypothesis is both inductively and deductively the sine qua non of the science of psychology.
Boris Sidis