People have a plastic brain that is capable of learning throughout their lives and must first find out what is important in life. That is why we are and will remain seekers. But we can all too easily get lost in the search for a happy and meaningful life, as individuals as well as as a whole society. As soon as we begin to feel that we have gone astray, we become afraid. And that's good. Fear is our most vigilant companion. It enables us to learn from mistakes. We cannot live without fear. With his many years of experience in the field of fear research, the neurobiologist Gerald Hüther explores the question of how this function of fear, which protects our lives, can be reconciled with our longing for a life free of fear. His surprising answer: people can also learn to ignore legitimate fears. You can even experience that a fear that can be felt deep within you can be overlaid by another, superficially triggered and more controllable fear. In order to achieve certain goals, we humans are able to both suppress and intensify fear - not only in ourselves, but much more powerfully in others. The stirring up or appeasing of fear can therefore be used specifically to enforce one's own interests and intentions. This instrumentalization of fear makes people dependent and manipulable, robs them of their freedom. Accordingly, Gerald Hüther does not describe how we can free ourselves from fear, but what we can do in order not to become driven by the fears fueled by other or interest groups.
