ABSTRACT
Flight is directed toward "havens of safety" – to familiar people and locations outside the immediate area; and even within the danger zone the dominant tendency is to remain close to attachment figures. In the panic of the Russian rifle brigade at Haitshong in 1904, discussed earlier, flight was not merely away from the danger – or supposed danger – but towards a temporary "haven of safety". The concept of haven of safety provides a solution to the problem of reconciling theater-fire-type panics with the general theory advanced. The theory of panic advanced can also be described in terms of a system with negative-feedback mechanisms. Panic behavior simply provides a dramatic illustration of the operation of a homeostatic principle which occurs far less conspicuously whenever a slight incongruity is registered by the individual concerned, or by one or more individuals in the situation. In panic flight, animals and men are desperately searching for appropriate feedback for their cognitive maps.
