ABSTRACT
In 1920, behaviourist John Broadus Watson, along with his graduate student-turned-wife, Rosalie Alberta Rayner, presented 11-month-old-baby Albert with the stimuli of a friendly white rat and observed his reactions. The animal did not provoke fear in Albert but inspired curiosity. In later trials, every time the child reached for the playful rodent, Watson and Rainer frightened him by striking a hammer upon a suspended steel pipe. Fear is innate in every living thing, and it serves preservation. When confronted with danger, the fight-or-flight response automatically kicks in and overrides the reasoning part of the brain that governs social control, encourages rational thinking and manages other higher-order executive functions. When it comes to relationships, a lot of our fears originate from a lack of safety. Wilson notes that the descent into the cellar of the unconscious is analogous to the ascent of the soul. Although they appear to move in opposite directions, they both reach the same end.
