The Definition of Fearthought
Horace Fletcher
"Fear has had its uses in the evolutionary process, and seems to
constitute the whole of forethought in most animals; but that it
should remain any part of the mental equipment of human civilized life
is an absurdity. I find that the fear element of forethought is not
stimulating to those more civilized persons to whom duty and
attraction are the natural motives, but is weakening and deterrent. As
soon as it becomes unnecessary, fear becomes a positive deterrent, and
should be entirely removed, as dead flesh is removed from living
tissue. To assist in the analysis of fear, and in the denunciation of
its expressions, I have coined the word fearthought to stand
for the unprofitable element of forethought, and have defined the word
'worry' as fearthought in contradistinction to forethought . I
have also defined fearthought as the self-imposed or
self-permitted suggestion of inferiority , in order to place it
where it really belongs, in the category of harmful, unnecessary, and
therefore not respectable things."
(Fletcher, Horace: Happiness as found in Forethought minus
Fearthought, Menticulture Series , ii. Chicago and New York,
Stone, 1897, pp. 21-25, abridged; as quoted in James, Henry, The
Varieties of Religious Experience, New York: Longmans, 1903).