Public Anxiety and the Future of the Arab World by Dr. Mohamed Dabbasha

In a previous study of ours in 2005, we developed a theoretical framework on a new theory of anxiety and built a scale to determine the level of objective anxiety, motivation and neuroticism to know at what level anxiety is normal and is a necessity of life, when this anxiety is a motive for achievement, creativity and innovation, and at what level it is neurotic, distracts thought and be Obstacle to the continuation of life in a normal way.

Anxiety was defined as a state of painful emotional tension resulting from internal or external painful experiences and events expressed in abnormal emotional behavior in order to control the situation and relieve tension.

Accordingly, the results showed that the natural anxiety about a situation disappears with the demise of the situation, such as anxiety about health or academic success or any matter of ordinary life, and in this case anxiety does not exceed the minimum limits as degrees on the scale, but if it exceeds these limits for some and does not reach To the limits of neurotic anxiety, based on field experiments, we interpreted this as a motive anxiety that pushes its owner to more achievement, creativity and innovation, whether this is in the scientific or literary field. It is an incentive for success and overcoming difficulties. This type of anxiety is personal and cannot be considered a general concern because it does not transcend a person. A particular person or group of persons within the limits of place and time resulting in painful experiences.

As for the feeling of anxiety as a result of panic and excessive alarm about public affairs and the country’s exposure to wars, terrorism, economic and political crises, natural disasters and poverty, anxiety is common and common among the members of that country that was exposed to the disasters mentioned above.

In view of the crises our Arab world is going through in Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen and other regions and countries in the Arab world, this has reflected on the mental health of all Arab citizens in those countries. Feeling anxious about the future has become a natural thing, such as fear of losing life due to terrorism, hunger and poverty. And the shortage of water, so whoever has the right to take the decision must take this into account and know that this concern hinders the development process, and therefore many necessary measures must be taken to alleviate this feeling of anxiety among all members of the Arab peoples so that we do not return to the eras of decline and backwardness because we did not rely on The results of scientific research in making any decision regarding the psychological aspect of the Arab citizen, which is the cornerstone of any future development that we aspire to reach.