What do you think is the connection between Horror as a genre and the psychological aspects of life, that is, all the quirky workings of all our individual (or even collective) psyches or set of experiences?

Lucy Taylor Steven King has said that, "We make up horrors to help us deal with the real ones," and I think that's very true. The horror writer controls and manages what she/he creates; the reader can pick and choose what to read and can always just shut the book or turn off the Kindle. It's "theme park style" fear, not the real thing. I also think people who've had early trauma are sometimes drawn to horror as a way to make sense of or to safely explore things similar to what they've actually lived through.

Of course, the reverse is true also. There are a lot of people who won't even pick up a horror novel or anthology because they don't want to read something that has the potential to upset them or activate old terrors, and I can understand this. I think individual personality has a lot to do with it. Does reading horror intrigue and thrill me or does it cut too close to be enjoyable? What is my threshold for intensity, my level of craving for the bizarre and to what extent, if any, do I enjoy the link between the erotic and the perverse and terrifying? For many people, I believe such questions don't even make sense. For others, it's kind of hard-wired.

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