William James is not afraid

"In psychology, he taught that what we are pleased to call rationality is in fact a feeling, a feeling of fitness or rightness. He also taught that many of our emotions are the result, not the cause, of physical reactions (we are afraid because we run, not the other way round) and that mimicking, say, a smile or a friendly handshake will often produce a feeling of friendliness."

Life, he decided, is better when people believe they can think and accomplish what they will." This view was borne out in his psychological approach, eventually called functionalism, which studied mental processes by observing what they accomplished." Instead of trying to categorize mental processes, functionalism "welcomed a variety of ideas, particularly those that helped solve practical problems."