FEAR
Fear is a term loosely used in common parlance and also to certain extent in psychology in referring to a gamut of related feelings. Most fears are focused on objects that threaten life, like dangerous animals, unfamiliar places and situations. These are rational fears necessary for survival. There are also other fears or phobias which are irrational in nature, like excessive fear of insects, cockroaches, etc. These we can call death fear. Why are we afraid of snakes? We are afraid that if the snake bites us, we will die. Why are we afraid of dangerous animals, accidents, thunder, lightening, height, sickness etc.? Because we believe that these situations can cause us to die.
We also fear certain situations which we think might bring us undesired consequences, or cause some negative evaluation of self. We fear rejection from a significant person, we fear failure in an exam, we fear going on the stage and giving a public speech, we fear authority figures, and we fear any kind of belittling of the ego. These fears can be labelled "shame-guilt fear." Though the term fear is used for all these experiences, in actuality the emotion is not fear but shame-guilt. Why do we have stage fear? It is not that someone from the audience is coming to attack and kill us. It is simply that we are afraid of the negative evaluation of us from others. Why are we afraid of authority figures? It is not that the authority figures are going to attack and kill us. We are afraid of being negatively perceived by the authority figures. It is tantamount to shame.