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and illogical behaviour; with increasing intelligence he is more able to defend it
by plausible and logical explanations. Typical examples of the adult who has
grown up in these circumstances is the one with the rigid viewpoint, as in the
father who cannot tolerate the minor excesses or extravagances in his son
because of his own stubborn rigidity of mind and the anxiety which would
follow his admitting he had behaved the same way himself; or the other overactive
adult who avoids anxiety by having no time for it. Many people get
relief from anxiety by the temporary substitution of the excitement of gambling;
others take to drink and drugs. Finally there are those who give up the struggle
altogether and become insane, imagining themselves to be kings and queens
or superior persons—the victims of international plots.
The Anxiety Reaction.
Throughout all these stages you will have noted time and time again that
where the herd instinct is denied—that is, where there is a threat to safety or
security or acceptance the person reacts with anxiety—vague feelings of
helplessness and panic. The reaction is always one which restores social
acceptance in the mind of the person himself; that is it restores self-respect,
self-regard, and self-esteem, and prestige. Whether the person is or is not held
in esteem in reality does not matter; if the person himself believes he is in good
standing all will be well; but even the threat of a weakening of that belief will
provoke a reaction to restore the belief because of the painful feeling of anxiety.
Thus anxiety will come on in circumstances where we fear we might make fools
of ourselves and so lose prestige, such as in stage-fright, or fear of losing a game
before it is played, or going to meet an important person, or going in for an
examination, or when the house is untidy when someone calls. In all these
situations the person is unconsciously thinking ' I will lose prestige, and my
good standing with this person or group will suffer and I might become an
outcast.'
Prestige.
This state of prestige is a biological safeguard. The man held in high
esteem often becomes the leader of a group. Without a leader the group is more
vulnerable to its enemies. Therefore the leader gets special protection from
the group which would rather protect a bad leader than have no leader at all.
And there is considerable inertia in a group over a change of leader—that is, the
group will take a very great amount of persuasion to change from a bad leader
to one supposedly better. Thus, if any person can get to be a leader of any
group such as the president, chairman, manager, or foreman of a society or
public body or business then that person not only gets the prestige of the leader
but he also gets the not inconsiderable security of tenure of his office by reason
of the natural support given to him by the group he leads.
Reducing Anxiety.
So all our lives from babyhood onwards we constantly make adjustments in
our conduct calculated as we think best to minimise all feelings of anxiety. We
thus create habits and patterns of behaviour which tend as we grow older to
become a fixed part of us. We use the same old tricks which we used
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