Insurmountable fear: the emotion that can exonerate a person from a crime

A few weeks ago, a woman driving her car hit several fans near the RCDE Stadium, just minutes before a sporting match was due to start. Witnesses to the incident said the scene was shocking and caused a lot of confusion.

However, beyond the facts known through testimonies and images, the issue is that neither the people who witnessed the incident live, nor those who watched it later on their mobile phone screens or on television, know what was going through the driver's mind seconds before she hit the accelerator.

Shortly after the accident, one of the hypotheses put forward to explain the woman's behavior was based on a legal concept known as insurmountable fear, a term closely related to psychology.

Within the walls of a courtroom, insurmountable fear refers to a fear so intense that it overrides a person's will, forcing them to perform an action they would not have committed without that fear. So much so, that it constitutes a defense against criminal liability , meaning that the person cannot be convicted of a crime committed under that fear.

This concept reminds us of another, more familiar, transient mental disorder. Both have points in common, but from the perspective of legal psychology, they are defined as two distinct concepts. “The fundamental difference is that insurmountable fear does not constitute a disorder. It is true that both have a sudden and abrupt onset and are short-lived, but insurmountable fear does not disappear quickly without leaving any after-effects and does not require a proven prior pathological basis. Furthermore, the defining requirements for each vary depending on the Supreme Court,” explains Elisa Alfaro Ferreres, professor of the Criminology Degree at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR).

Poor emotional management

Returning to the fear that may have subdued the will of the person who hit and run, the expert provides more information: “Insurmountable fear is related to an acute situation of extreme fear that nullifies the capacity for thought , reasoning, and decision-making, or nullifies the will in the face of imminent danger.” She adds: “The emotion of fear is located within our brain in the amygdala, which is responsible, among other things, for providing an automatic response to emotions and, above all, for managing fear, choosing one of three possible responses: blocking, fighting, or flight. Excessive activation of the amygdala in a fearful situation can block our higher brain functions and nullify higher cognitive functions. This is what is called amygdala hijacking.”

"At that moment," the expert continues, "we lose control of our emotions, and when faced with intense fear, only one of the three responses mentioned above is possible: the body blocks or paralyzes, flees, or attacks. All of this exceeds the subject's voluntary control. This situation, in which the higher cognitive centers are suppressed and the subject loses control over their emotions, could affect the psychobiological basis of accountability if other requirements, such as direct causality, are also met."

When these types of extreme situations occur, our sympathetic system is activated, generating a series of psychophysiological correlates. Alfaro explains: “At the cardiac level, for example, the increase in norepinephrine increases the heart rate, and palpitations can occur. In addition, more air enters the lungs, and breathing accelerates. As blood circulation increases, the muscles contract. The pupils dilate. At the psychological level, one feels paralyzed or blocked in thought, panic, chaos, fear of losing control, or a need to run away and flee. Subjects describe this fear as a true emotional breakdown. Furthermore, it provokes uncontrolled behavior followed by intense regret.”

People who have experienced it describe it as a real emotional breakdown.

The sum of all these effects makes up an "acute situation that resolves more or less spontaneously," says the expert, who believes that this type of fear (not in its maximum expression) is related to anxiety disorders that can cause a lot of suffering and discomfort in people.

Furthermore, Alfaro reminds us that insurmountable fear " is not considered a disorder and, therefore, does not require therapeutic intervention. Although I insist that its clinical analogues, which would be associated, for example, with anxiety disorders, do have a very good therapeutic response."

So far, we've focused on people and the psychological consequences of experiencing certain situations. But what triggers this type of fear? What robs us of control? According to the professor specializing in legal psychology, there are countless varieties of fear, "from Kierkegaard's existential fears, the fear of not finding meaning in life, the fear of death, or the fear of losing a loved one, to more immediate fears such as the fear of flying, riding in an elevator, speaking in public, relating to others... The range is very broad and diverse."

Therefore, the source of our fears can be very different. In fact, it's not unusual for what frightens one person to be indifferent to another. This leads us to consider whether the threat triggering the fear is real or fictitious. In this sense, according to the psychologist, "in insurmountable fear, both the objective and subjective aspects are assessed to consider the subject's response. In other words, it's important to determine the subjective perception of fear and danger that the person perceives. On the other hand, a fictitious threat would not exist , since we remember that our brain often fails to differentiate reality from imagination and responds in the same way to imagined situations as it does to lived ones."

The most sensible way to resolve this situation, "would perhaps be to objectively assess the object of fear, analyze whether it constitutes a real danger, identify its dimensions, and at the same time, activate strategies that calm our brain in response to these signals," Alfaro suggests.