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The extent of man's preoccupation with physical causality has been previously established in cross-cultural studies and in studies of primitive societies. Any event of unknown origins or one incompletely understood is often interpreted as signifying potential injury and, consequently, is regarded as threatening. In order to minimize the acute fear aroused by threat, beliefs are established which serve as guides to action in coping with the threat and serve to allay a sense of impotence. These beliefs, whether rational or not, are not only influenced by reality but are also shaped by subjective factors. Piaget (7), who found beliefs of causality prevalent in the thinking of children, described the phenomena as “a fusion of physical experience and internal feelings.” Other psychologists, particularly the earlier ones, advanced the principle that the significance of beliefs lies in the extent to which they permit an understanding of the influence of emotions upon “intellect and cognition” (11). Perhaps contemporary knowledge of psychodynamic principles insures that a more meaningful contribution can evolve from a study of beliefs.
If beliefs are considered as a technique of mastery, then much can be learned from a study of their development in stressful situations. Under stressful circumstances, the need to establish a belief in a causal relationship seems to increase in proportion to the immediacy of danger. Dependent upon its nature and severity, illness is stressful in that it constitutes a threat to personal survival; the more serious the illness is perceived, the greater and more immediate the threat. Primitives regard disease as a terrifying abnormality; and, in the absence of scientific knowledge, action necessary to reduce a feeling of powerless-ness and to restore health involves therapeutic measures based upon some belief regarding causation (9). In this connection, the most common primitive beliefs are that diseases are supernaturally or magically