ABSTRACT
The difference between normal fear and abnormal would seem at first sight to be apparent. Even in normal fear there is considerable evidence to suggest that the outer danger is commonly reacted to excessively only because it resonates, as it were, with one operating inside us. As regards manifestations, the essential difference between the phenomenon of normal fear and the symptoms of morbid anxiety is that whereas in fear practically all the mental and physical symptoms described are present in a related or comparable degree, in morbid anxiety, on the other hand, any one or more of these symptoms may stand out in striking disproportion to the others. The illnesses which arise from fear, normal and abnormal—and it is doubtful whether any, even accidents, can be excluded— may be divided into those connected with its mental and those connected with its physical manifestations. Anxiety hysteria may develop into the more typical form of hysteria called conversion hysteria.
