what does "the fear does not make sense to begin with" mean in the paragraph?
I have a paragraph as follows:
"However absurd it may be, an irrational fear cannot be dealt with using rationality alone. No amount of reasoning, pondering, or hours of reliving childhood memories in therapy is going to do any good because the fear does not make sense to begin with. It is irrational, yet you will still feel afraid after realizing that you have no good reason to be afraid".
What is "the fear" in the paragraph? Does it mean "irrational fear"? and what does "the fear does not make sense to begin with" mean? Does it mean "i don't have that irrational fear at first", right?

Question

what does "the fear does not make sense to begin with" mean in the paragraph?
I have a paragraph as follows:
"However absurd it may be, an irrational fear cannot be dealt with using rationality alone. No amount of reasoning, pondering, or hours of reliving childhood memories in therapy is going to do any good because the fear does not make sense to begin with. It is irrational, yet you will still feel afraid after realizing that you have no good reason to be afraid".
 What is "the fear" in the paragraph? Does it mean "irrational fear"? and what does "the fear does not make sense to begin with" mean? Does it mean "i don't have that irrational fear at first", right?

Answer

In this case "the fear" does mean the irrational fear. "The fear doesn't make sense to begin with" means there's no real reason to have the fear at all. Hopefully that helps. Please let me know if you need more clarification.

Answer

The sentence is trying to explain that an irrational fear is not something that can be addressed through logic or rational thought. It could be anything, but I will use a fear of clowns or of spiders as an example. Probably, you have never been hurt by one, but their appearances, what they do, etc., creates a fear within your mind that you cannot control. So, there is no real reason for you to be afraid, to have fear, but you do, so that "fear does not make sense to begin with" right?  My co-worker, who is six feet tall and weighs approx. 200 lbs, is afraid of mice! Can a mouse hurt him? No, but he is afraid nevertheless. Understand? I hope this helps you. J.

Answer

As an example, my sister is afraid of flying in airplanes. It's an irrational fear because all the science points to the fact that flying is safe. But no matter how many articles I give her to read about how safe it is, this is not an argument that can be solved by logic and sense, because her fear was never logical!