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From Psychology Articles:

Fear is by far the most misunderstood emotion. In our conventional wisdom it is regarded far less as an emotion, and far more as a sure sign of danger that justifies instant escape, dissolving our awareness of the fear by discharging its energy in action, one form of dissociation. Another is to regard a feeling as a fact that is equivalent to reality. Such a fiction, that feelings by themselves can identify and represent reality, is regarded as borderline in mental functioning. And yet we do it every day with fear. We use the emotion of fear as motive and justification for emotional, and even physical violence.

Most interesting in the quote and in the article is the observation that fear can beget a defense split, dissociation and over identification with fiction as reality.