Most, perhaps all, of soicety's social and emotional porblems are related to the way fear is processed in the brain. When a person encounters a fearful situation, especially a child subjected to abuse, abandonment, etc., the old or primitive brain is stimulated to generate fear, but the new brain or neocortex has to provide a sense of safety. If this happens, the individual has control over that instance of fear. However, if the neocortex cannot provide a sense of safety, the fear becomes stored in memory where it can be re-experienced (triggered) for the rest of that person's life. It can be triggered when the individual later encounters a situation that in some way resembles the original fearful event. When the old fear is triggered it it can be expressed in countless ways such as violence, hate, racism, sexism, criminal behavior, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, rage, child abuse, dysfunctional families, negative attitudes and a host other forms of negative behaviors. Everyone has a certain level of fear that is stored in memory. In my book I refer to this fear as unintegrated fear. In essence, everyone is controlled by this type fear, but it is not recognized as fear. We may say that a person has a short fuse, a workaholic, a loner, a control freak just to name a few. In worst-case scenarios, we have people like Adolf Hitler, Napoleon, serial killers, etc.
Society can gain control of this fear by each person recongizes how he is controlled by fear, for example, what makes you unhappy, in what situations are you uncomfortable, what type of behavior irritates you, etc. When the individual recognizes his fear, he has to talk about it, write about it, resort to prayer, consult a professional, etc. In essence, there is much hope for society today.
