People feel safer behind some kind of physical barrier. If a social situation is in any way threatening, there is an immediate urge to    16  such a barricade. For a tiny child faced with a stranger, the problem is   17   solved by hiding behind its mother’s body and peeking out at the intruder to see what he or she will do next. If the mother’s body is not   18   , a chair or some other piece of solid furniture will  19   . If the stranger insists on coming closer, then the peeking face must be hidden too. If the   20   intruder continues to approach despite these obvious signals of fear, then there is nothing for it  21  to scream or flee.This pattern is  22  reduced as the child matures. In teenage girls it may still be detected in the giggling cover-up of the face when embarrassed. But  23  the time we are adult, the childhood hiding is expected to disappear altogether, as we  24  stride out to meet our guests, customers, or friends. Each social occasion involves us, once again, in slightly threatening encounters similar to the ones  25   made us hide as scared infants. In other words, the  26   is still there, but their expression is blocked. Our adult   27  demand control and suppression of any primitive urge to withdraw and hide ourselves away. The more formal the occasion, the more   28  the moment of encounter becomes. Watching people under these conditions, it is possible to   29  the many small ways in which they continue to “hide behind their mother’s skirts.”The actions are still there, but they are less  30   . It is these that are the Barrier Signals of adult life.

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