Children’s fears as a sociocultural construct: An appeal to healers in Armenia

This article explores the importance given to children’s fear and the rules and customs around it in Armenian society. The study is based on a narrative analysis of interviews which allowed identifying the reasons why parents make a decision about the need for a healing practice to relieve fear. Also, based on interview analysis, the reactions of the informants who recalled their experience of visiting a healer in their childhood have been collected. Recalling their childhood experience, the informants re-construct their identity and oppose themselves to the cultural tradition that is accepted in Armenia and that made it possible to conduct a healing ritual. One of the forms of healing practices in Armenia is the practice of “removing fear”, which is often mentioned by the informants. The research literature states that the significance of fear is constantly shaped by cultural and historical factors. There is some cultural “prescription” indicating how to act in the face of danger. The cultural script adopted in Armenia encourages parents to turn to healers with a request to remove fear. So, fear is a social construct of society and tradition. Culture and tradition in society indicate us what we should fear. Based on the interviews, the author highlights the main motives for parents to decide to work with children’s fears by healing. However, it can be seen from the interviews that quite often children do not have a request to be taken to remove their fear(s) or they are too small and cannot articulate the request by themselves. Parents interpret the child’s behavior themselves as the presence of a fear and decide that this fear needs to be “removed” because otherwise it can cause serious problems with health. “Problems” means both psychological and physiological diseases, because it is believed that fear destroys the body. Thus, parents try to prevent more serious consequences. This study suggests that the significance given to childhood fear is constructed by tradition. The social construction of fear is influenced by survival values and traditional values, as well as the belief that fear puts the child at risk for a dangerous disease. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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