Children once had remarkable freedom and independence, contrasting modern-day parental fear and control.
Rejection therapy allows individuals to desensitize themselves to rejection, empowering them to challenge and diminish fear.
Deep dives
Children's Freedom in the Past
In the 1970s, children enjoyed remarkable freedom and independence in a small town in Vermont, with even four-year-olds roaming unsupervised. Environmental psychologist Roger Hart tracked children's movements, creating maps of where they could go alone. By age ten, most kids had the run of the entire town, including places previously considered out of bounds, demonstrating the significant freedom children once had.
Modern-Day Fears and Restrictions
Contrastingly, modern-day parents exhibit heightened fear and control over their children's movements despite crime levels staying consistent over decades. Roger Hart revisited the town years later and found children's freedom greatly diminished, playing much closer to home. Parents today express fear and stricter limitations, reflective of societal shifts towards heightened supervision and control.
The Evolution of Fear Response
Evolution has wired humans to have a high fear threshold to ensure survival. The human brain's fear response is valuable for detecting potential threats, even though most perceived dangers are false alarms. However, modern society exposes individuals to various triggers that constantly activate this fear response, often leading to unnecessary fear and anxiety.
Overcoming Fear through Rejection Therapy
Jason Comely developed rejection therapy to confront his fear of rejection after his wife left him. By deliberately seeking rejection daily, Jason desensitized himself to rejection's impact and altered his relationship with fear. Rejection therapy enabled him to view fear as a construct influenced by self-perception and the narratives we create, empowering individuals to challenge and diminish fear by changing their mindset and behaviors.
In "Fearless," co-hosts Alix Spiegel and Lulu Miller explore what would happen if you could disappear fear. A group of scientists believe that people no longer need fear — at least not the kind we live with — to navigate the modern world. We'll hear about the striking (and rare) case of a woman with no fear. The second half of the show explores how the rest of us might "turn off" fear.