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List of phobias

"-phobia" redirects here. For the class of psychological disorders, see Phobia.

The English suffixes -phobia, -phobic, -phobe (from Greek φόβος phobos, "fear") occur in technical usage in psychiatry to construct words that describe irrational, abnormal, unwarranted, persistent, or disabling fear as a mental disorder (e.g. agoraphobia), in chemistry to describe chemical aversions (e.g. hydrophobic), in biology to describe organisms that dislike certain conditions (e.g. acidophobia), and in medicine to describe hypersensitivity to a stimulus, usually sensory (e.g. photophobia). In common usage, they also form words that describe dislike or hatred of a particular thing or subject (e.g. homophobia). The suffix is antonymic to -phil-.

For more information on the psychiatric side, including how psychiatry groups phobias such as agoraphobia, social phobia, or simple phobia, see phobia. The following lists include words ending in -phobia, and include fears that have acquired names. In some cases, the naming of phobias has become a word game, of notable example being a 1998 humorous article published by BBC News.[1] In some cases, a word ending in -phobia may have an antonym with the suffix -phil-, e.g. Germanophobe/Germanophile.

A large number of -phobia lists circulate on the Internet, with words collected from indiscriminate sources, often copying each other. Also, a number of psychiatric websites exist that at the first glance cover a huge number of phobias, but in fact use a standard text to fit any phobia and reuse it for all unusual phobias by merely changing the name. Sometimes it leads to bizarre results, such as suggestions to cure "prostitute phobia".[2] Such practice is known as content spamming and is used to attract search engines.

An article published in 1897 in American Journal of Psychology noted "the absurd tendency to give Greek names to objects feared (which, as Arndt says, would give us such terms as klopsophobia – fear of thieves, triakaidekaphobia – fear of the number 13....".[3]

Contents

Psychological conditions

Specialists may prefer to avoid the suffix -phobia and use more descriptive terms such as personality disorders, anxiety disorders, and avoidant personality disorder. Terms should strictly have a Greek prefix although many are irregularly formed with Latin or even English prefixes. Many use inaccurate or imprecise prefixes, such as aerophobia (fear of air) for fear of flying.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
A

B

C

D

E

  • Eisoptrophobia – fear of mirrors or seeing one's reflection in a mirror[6][7]
  • Eurotophobia – aversion to female genitals
  • Emetophobia – fear of vomiting
  • Enochlophobia – fear of crowds
  • Ephebiphobia – fear of youth; inaccurate, exaggerated and sensational characterization of young people
  • Ergophobia, ergasiophobia – fear of work or functioning, or a surgeon's fear of operating
  • Erotophobia – fear of sexual love or sexual abuse
  • Erythrophobia, erytophobia, ereuthophobia – fear of the color red, or fear of blushing

F

G

H

I

  • Ichthyophobia – fear of fish, including fear of eating fish, or fear of dead fish

K

  • Koumpounophobia – fear of buttons[10]

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

W

X

Animal phobias

Main article: Zoophobia

Non-psychological conditions

  • Bibliophobia – fear or hatred of books, as a cultural phenomenon[14]
  • Hoplophobia – a political term for fear of weapons, specifically firearms
  • Lipophobia – avoidance of fats in food[15][16][17] (see also Lipophobicity)
  • Osmophobia – hypersensitivity to smells causing aversion to odors
  • Phonophobia – hypersensitivity to sound causing aversion to sounds
  • Photophobia – hypersensitivity to light causing aversion to light

Biology, chemistry

Biologists use a number of -phobia/-phobic terms to describe predispositions by plants and animals against certain conditions. For antonyms, see here

Prejudices and discrimination

Racist and xenophobic sentiments

Further information: List of anti-cultural, anti-national, and anti-ethnic terms

The suffix -phobia is used to coin terms that denote a particular anti-ethnic or anti-demographic sentiment, such as Americanophobia, Europhobia, Francophobia, Hispanophobia, and Indophobia. Often a synonym with the prefix "anti-" already exists (e.g. Polonophobia vs. anti-Polonism). Anti-religious sentiments are expressed in terms such as Christianophobia and Islamophobia.

Other prejudices include:

Prejudices against other categories of people

See also

References

  1. ^ The A–Z of Fear, a 30 October 1998 BBC News unsigned article in the "Entertainment" section
  2. ^ "Content Spammers Help You Overcome Prostitute Phobia". Webpronews.com. 25 August 2005. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  3. ^ Hall, G. Stanley (1897). "A Study of Fears". American Journal of Psychology. University of Illinois Press. 8 (2): 157. doi:10.2307/1410940. JSTOR 1410940.
  4. ^ a b Robert Jean Campbell (2009). Campbell's Psychiatric Dictionary. Oxford University Press. pp. 375–. ISBN 978-0-19-534159-1.
  5. ^ Gould, Dr. George Milbry (1910). The Practitioner's Medical Dictionary (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: P. Blackiston's Son & Co. p. 100.
  6. ^ David Sue; Derald Wing Sue; Diane M. Sue; Stanley Sue (15 February 2013). Essentials of Understanding Abnormal Behavior. Cengage Learning. pp. 126–. ISBN 978-1-285-62475-4.
  7. ^ William Pitchot (11 September 2014). "Effective Treatment of Eisoptrophobia With Duloxetine: A Case Report". Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 16 (5). doi:10.4088/PCC.14l01636. PMC 4321006. PMID 25667801.
  8. ^ Bullough, Vern L.; Bullough, Bonnie (2014). Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 449. ISBN 9781135825096.
  9. ^ Dunglison, Robert; Dunglison, Richard James (1895). Richard James Dunglison, ed. A dictionary of medical science: containing a full explanation of the various subjects and terms of anatomy, physiology, ... (21 ed.). Lea Brothers & Co.
  10. ^ Russell, Julia; Lintern, Fiona; Gauntlett, Lizzie (2016-09-01). Cambridge International AS and A Level Psychology Coursebook. Cambridge University Press. p. 144. ISBN 9781316605691. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  11. ^ Schmid, Markus; Wolf, Robert C; Freudenmann, Roland W; Schönfeldt-Lecuona, Carlos (2009-11-18). "Tomophobia, the phobic fear caused by an invasive medical procedure - an emerging anxiety disorder: a case report". Journal of Medical Case Reports. 3: 131. doi:10.1186/1752-1947-3-131. ISSN 1752-1947. PMC 2803803. PMID 20062769.
  12. ^ Basavaraj, K. H.; Navya, M. A; Rashmi, R. (2010). "Relevance of psychiatry in dermatology: Present concepts". Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 52 (3): 270–275. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.70992. ISSN 0019-5545. PMC 2990831. PMID 21180416.
  13. ^ Thomas, Gregory (15 October 2012). "Do holes make you queasy or even fearful". The Daily Herald. Arlington, IL. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  14. ^ Jackson, Holbrook (1932). The Fear of Books. University of Illinois. ISBN 978-0-252-07040-2.
  15. ^ Fischler, C. "From lipophilia to lipophobia. Changing attitudes and behaviors towards fat: a socio-historical approach", in: Dietary fats determinants of preference, selection, and consumption / edited by DJ Mela. London : New York : Elsevier Applied Science, c1992. p. 103-115.
  16. ^ Askegaard, S. Ostberg, J. "Consumers' Experience of Lipophobia: A Swedish Study", Advances in Consume Research, 2003, vol. 30, p. 161
  17. ^ Askegaard, Søren, Holt, Douglas B. Jensen, Anne F. "Lipophobia: A Transatlantic Concept?" Advances in Consume Research, 1999, vol. 26, issue 1 p. 331-336.

Further reading

  • Aldrich, C. (2 December 2002). The Aldrich Dictionary of Phobias and Other Word Families. Trafford Publishing. pp. 224–236. ISBN 1-55369-886-X.

External links

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