Talk:-phobia/Archive 1

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Archive This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Contents

Is this a joke?

  • Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, Sesquipedalophobia - Fear of long words.
Oh, come on, this is amazingly ironic. DryGrain 21:59, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Wikiphobia — definitely looks like a joke. I put it in italics. — RJH 17:35, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

You can leave "usually" in there if you want. As seen on Talk:Homophobia, I asked a psychiatrist (my neighbor and good friend), who says agoraphobia is the only "phobia" he has ever encountered in some 30 years of practice, working in the inner city, suburbs, jails, prisons. He specifically says that homophobia is "a newspaper term". If psychologists have a checklist for homophobia, it should probably be mentioned in the homophobia article, but keep in mind that psychologists are not medical doctors. Ortolan88

Yes, the term is used more often by psychologists than by psychiatrists, but a quick search for homophobia on MEDLINE suggests that it is used in both contexts. --Eloquence

I think there's a difference between phobias that are rarely encountered in a clinical context (arachnophobia) and "phobias" that are not encountered in a clinical context (transphobia, europhobia, xenophobia, homophobia) - so I preferred the three lists to the two lists, personally... -Martin

I believe it is our responsibility to draw some distinctions and provide knowledge and education. One list does not do it. It is not correct that agoraphobia, ailurophobia, and homophobia belong in one list.

  • Agoraphobia is a debilitating mental condition that can ruin a life. It is treated with drugs, carefully administered, combined with lengthy therapy and supervision. Its impact and treatment are in the same category as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
  • Ailurophobia means that you alter your behavior to avoid cats. Likewise with other fears, fire, water, making right turns (I saw such on a documentary last night), etc. Such phobias cause inconvenience, sometimes drastic, but will rarely, if ever, result in medical attention. Such phobias might call for behavioral therapy (not by a psychiatrist, probably by a psychologist or psychotherapist), but can also be treated by avoiding the conditions that trigger it.
  • Homophobia and xenophobia are deep-seated prejudices that may have interesting causes, but however despicable one may find them, they simply are not medical conditions. Has anyone ever sought treatment for them? Or have others "diagnosed" them and stigmatized them, including perhaps forcing "treatment" (re-education, brainwashing) of some kind?

I don't like heights. Even in a cartoon on TV they make me tremble. My wife (a psychotherapist, btw) can't stand snakes. But those fears are miles away from either agoraphobia, on the one hand, or homophobia on the other. Ortolan88

As far as I can see, there are three kinds of "phobias" listed here:

  1. Overgrown natural fears (height, dark, enclosure, snakes...)
  2. Reactions to traumatic experiences
  3. Disgust and hence fear caused by prejudice (I think that homophobia in any but newspaper context, should denote the panic and fear of touching that some straight people feel when in presence of gay people, not gay-bashing and biggotry).

There are also plenty others, which would be better described as aversions, and probably should not be listed here. Zocky

Fourth kind of phobia, agoraphobia, an actual mental illness, unlike virtually all the others in this list. Ortolan88
I have missed the whole discussion about homophobia, so I may be wrong. But isn't categorizing phobias something altogether different from just listing all the nouns containing the suffix -phobia? Are we/you talking about linguistics or psychology/psychiatry/etc. here? --KF 18:36 Dec 28, 2002 (UTC)

A list of words ending in -phobia would be useless and misleading, and a very poor encyclopedia article. See the silly web page http://www.phobialist.com for a myriad of examples of words ending in -phobia, unmarred by thought, knowledge or even interest. If linguistics, psychology, psychiatry, or politics have something to contribute to the discussion, they should be allowed to contribute.Ortolan88

I agree of course that the phobialist you are referring to is absolutely pointless. From a purely linguistic point of view, however, people who waste their time coining words no one needs and listing them alphabetically are doing something rather interesting: They use language productively. The booklet Word Formation (Collins Cobuild English Guides No.2) (1991) (ISBN 0003705218) is full of examples of prefixes and suffixes that can be used to create neologisms.
Anyway, I'm not going to interfere here -- otherwise I might develop Ortolanophobia, and your neighbour would certainly refuse to treat me. :-) KF 19:39 Dec 28, 2002 (UTC)

He's in the other room right now. Shall I get him? He's an Ortolanophile, so far as I know. Ortolan88

FYI: the 25-odd phobia stubs just created are listed on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion. -- Tim Starling

Hi, can someone please amend the gloss on "cardiophobia". It is not "fear of the heart" but "fear of heart disease". Many thanks Dieter Simon 00:24 19 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Ok, who protected this page without explaining it on wikipedia:protected page, this talk page, the page history, or anywhere? *grr*
It's unprotected now. Edit at will. Martin 00:36 19 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Pull the other one, it's got bells on! Encyclopediphobia? Can someone tell us where they found this one, it's not in any of the search engines I've looked at. Fear of encyclopdias or going round in a circle, may be? Or just ramblin? --Dieter Simon 00:20 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I took out the links to non-existent articles on phobias because they seem to be a newbie magnet for useless stubs that consist of nothing more than the short definition already here. (I left the links to articles that already exist, of course, and think it will be trivial for someone writing a real phobia article to link it here after the fact.) - Hephaestos 19:21 13 Jul 2003 (UTC)

It is appreciated, Hephaestos, many thanks Dieter Simon 21:43 13 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Although never trivial I have removed article created "after the fact". --Dieter Simon 23:08 14 Jul 2003 (UTC)


Distinguishing types of phobia

Maybe someone with a text-book could go through and make the "more-genuine" phobias appear in bold to distinguish them from the crowd. --Phil 13:03, Feb 5, 2004 (UTC)

No, don't bold, italicise, perhaps. Dysprosia 22:00, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Actually I think that italic would be better used to mark the "less-genuine". Just a gut feeling. --Phil | Talk 10:32, Mar 26, 2004 (UTC)

Dentophobia

The list currently defines dentophobia as "fear of dentists". Shouldn't that be "fear of teeth"? -- Schnee 20:37, 5 May 2004 (UTC)

Carbophobia

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17EATING.html

Carbophobia, the most recent in the centurylong series of food fads to wash over the American table, seems to have finally crested, though not before sweeping away entire bakeries and pasta companies in its path, panicking potato breeders into redesigning the spud, crumbling whole doughnut empires and, at least to my way of thinking, ruining an untold number of meals.

-- Toytoy 09:50, Oct 17, 2004 (UTC)

can we please...

can we please divide this list up into phobias acknowledged by the medical community and phobias invented by word-smiths? Kingturtle 06:55, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Wiktionary?

IMO 99% doesn't go beyond dicdef. I suggest to keep only items with wikiarticles, the rest must go to wiktionary. Not to say that this article became a playground for SillyDefinitionPhilia (sorry, I don't know how to say this in Greek). Mikkalai 21:45, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Does this one seem a little more rational then the others?

Nucleomituphobia - Fear of nuclear weapons.

I mean, who isn't? They make big explosions! Why would you not be scared of them?

--- So what? --Theaterfreak64 23:05, Feb 26, 2005 (UTC) P.S. That opinion could be argued against.

Alternative list

I just cut the below text from the Phobia article; a long list with many red links unlikely to ever be filled in with a dictionary definition, if they even warrent that. I'm moving it here for reference in case it has anything valid that should be added to this article. -- Infrogmation 18:38, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Types of phobia

Common phobias, but are not necessarily bad, include: (HTML-Comment: only phobias which can have an actual non-stub article about them, not a simple definition, should have seperate articles.)

  1. Achlophobia - Fear of acherontic places.
  2. Arachnophobia - Fear of spiders.
  3. Anthropophobia - Fear of Human Beings.
  4. Agoraphobia - Fear of social interaction.
  5. Anglophobia - Fear of England or the English.
  6. Allotriophobia - Fear of strange foods.
  7. Aeronausiphobia - Fear of flying, especially if it drives people ad nauseam.
  8. Aviatosiophobia - Fear of birds.
  9. Aerophobia - Fear of certain gaseous substances.
  10. Aviatophobia - Fear of birds.
  11. Autophobia - Fear of being alone.
  12. Ablutophobia - Fear of dirt.
  13. Automysophobia - Fear of being dirty.
  14. Autogynephobia - Fear of being a woman.
  15. Autovoxiphobia - Fear of one's own voice.
  16. Aphrodiasiaphobia - Fear of unusual sexual practices.
  17. Apodysophobia - Fear of being naked.
  18. Antlophobia - Fear of flowers.
  19. Anthrophobia - Fear of people or society.
  20. Americanophobia - Fear of Americans.
  21. Apiphobia - Fear of bees.
  22. Androphobia - Fear of men.
  23. Alektorophobia - Fear of chickens.
  24. Aperexiophobia - Fear of getting a fever.
  25. Astychiphobia - Fear of failure.
  26. Arithmophobia - Fear of numbers.
  27. Aerophobia - Fear of drafts, air swallowing or airborne noxious substances.
  28. Agoraphobia - Fear of the outdoors, crowds or uncontrolled social conditions.
  29. Acrophobia - Fear of heights.
  30. Ailurophobia - Fear of cats.
  31. Astraphobia - Fear of thunder and lightning.
  32. Agrizoophobia - Fear of animals.
  33. Bacteriophobia - Fear of bacteria or pathological germs.
  34. Bacillophobia - Fear of bacteria or pathological germs.
  35. Ballistophobia - Fear of projectiles.
  36. Bibliophobia - Fear of books.
  37. Bibliokleptophobia - Fear of books being mugged.
  38. Bromophobia - Fear of body odour.
  39. Campkillyourselfphobia - Fear of the rock band CKY.
  40. Cancerphobia - Fear of cancer.
  41. Cancerophobia - Fear of cancer.
  42. Celtophobia - Fear of celts.
  43. Canophonophobia - Fear of loud, thunderous sounds.
  44. Caligynophobia - Fear of pretty girls.
  45. Claustrophobia - Fear of confined spaces.
  46. Cypripareuniaphobia - Fear of sexual intercourse with prostitutes.
  47. Cardiophobia - Fear of heart disease.
  48. Coprophobia - Fear of excrement.
  49. Coitophobia - Fear of sexual intercourse.
  50. Chthonophobia - Fear of clay.
  51. Cometophobia - Fear of comets.
  52. Clinophobia - Fear of beds.
  53. Chronophobia - Fear of time.
  54. Cartilogenophobia - Fear of bones.
  55. Chronomatophobia - Fear of clocks.
  56. Chiraptophobia - Fear of bats.
  57. Dental phobia - Fear of dentists, dental surgery, or teeth.
  58. Dermatophobia - Fear of skin.
  59. Dermatosiophobia - Fear of skin.
  60. Demophobia - Fear of crowds.
  61. Demonophobia - Fear of demons.
  62. Dinophobia - Fear of whirlpools.
  63. Daemonophobia - Fear of demons.
  64. Ecclesiophobia - Fear of churches.
  65. Ergophobia - Fear of work.
  66. Ecdysiophobia - Fear of (not sure about this).
  67. Ergasiophobia - Fear of (not sure about this).
  68. Ephebiphobia - Fear of adolescents.
  69. Ethnophobia - Fear of the culture of a majority.
  70. Elurophobia - Fear of cats.
  71. Gephydrophobia/Gephyrophobia - Fear of crossing bridges.
  72. Gynephobia - Fear of women.
  73. Homophobia - Fear of homosexuality.
  74. Hirsutophobia - Fear of hair.
  75. Hypengyophobia/Hypegiaphobia - Fear of responsibility.
  76. Hydrophobia - Fear of water.
  77. Hygrophobia - Fear of liquids.
  78. Hippophobia - Fear of horses.
  79. Helminthophobia - Fear of worms.
  80. Halassophobia - Fear of the sea.
  81. Heliophobia - Fear of the sun.
  82. Ichthyophobia - Fear of fish.
  83. Insectophobia - Fear of insects.
  84. Pornophobia - Fear of pornographic material.
  85. Philomatophobia - Fear of kissing or being kissed.
  86. Philosophobia - Fear of philosophy.
  87. Philophobia - Fear of being loved.
  88. Parallelophobia - Fear of responsibility.
  89. Jealousophobia - Fear of being jealous.
  90. Japanophobia - Fear of the Japanese.
  91. Kleptophobia - Fear of being robbed.
  92. Klismaphobia - Fear of enemas.
  93. Kolophobia - Fear of young men.
  94. Pedophobia - Fear of children.
  95. Paedophobia - Fear of children.
  96. Photophobia - Fear of light.
  97. Rhaptophobia - Fear of being robbed.
  98. Keltophobia - Fear of dogs.
  99. Kakorrhaphiophobia - Fear of failure.
  100. Dysmorphophobia - Fear of being deformed.
  101. Dystychiphobia - Fear of accidents.
  102. Dikephobia - Fear of justice.
  103. Domatophobia - Fear of being in an abode.
  104. Necrophobia - Fear of death or dead things.
  105. Nyctophobia- Fear of night.
  106. Lilapsophobia- Fear of hurricanes or similar storms.
  107. Lachrymophobia - Fear of tears or crying.
  108. Lithophobia - Fear of rocks.
  109. Lexiconophobia - Fear of dictionaries.
  110. Lavacultophobia - Fear of stripping in front of people.
  111. Logizomechanophobia - Fear of computers.
  112. Logophobia - Fear of words.
  113. Ithyphallaphobia - Fear of an erect penis.
  114. Icelandophobia - Fear of iceland.
  115. Phallaphobia - Fear of an erect penis, or of seeing a penis.
  116. Phasmophobia - Fear of ghosts or poltergeists.
  117. Pathophobia - Fear of pathological germs or bacteria.
  118. Porporysiophobia - Fear of purple.
  119. Hypnophobia- Fear of sleep.
  120. Monophobia- Fear of being alone.
  121. Myrmecophobia - Fear of ants.
  122. Macrophobia - Fear of long waits.
  123. Microphobia - Fear of small objects.
  124. Mythophobia - Fear of myths.
  125. Mysophobia - Fear of dirt.
  126. Mysomophobia - Fear of dirt.
  127. Mysmophobia - Fear of dirt.
  128. Micophobia - Fear of Mice.
  129. Meningitiphobia - Fear of getting brain disease.
  130. Solophobia - Fear of being alone.
  131. Oneirophobia - Fear of dreams.
  132. Ostraphobia - Fear of conchyliferous creatures.
  133. Onychophobia - Fear of nails.
  134. Onomatophobia - Fear of certain words.
  135. Oceanophobia - Fear of the ocean.
  136. Nipponophobia - Fear of the Japanese.
  137. Russophobia - Fear of the Russians.
  138. Plutophobia- Fear of wealth.
  139. Papaphobia- Fear of the Pope.
  140. Pyrophobia - Fear of fire.
  141. Proctophobia - Fear of the rectum.
  142. Phobophobia- Fear of fear.
  143. Virginitiphobia- Fear of rape.
  144. Verminophobia - Fear of vermin.
  145. Verbophobia - Fear of words.
  146. Pantophobia- Fear of everything.
  147. Pantaphobia- Fear of nothing.
  148. Phagophobia - Fear of eating or phagies.
  149. Paraskavedekatriaphobia - Fear of Friday the 13th.
  150. Praepilaphobia - Fear of buttons.
  151. Sesquipedalophobia - Fear of long words.
  152. Soceraphobia - Fear of one's stepmother.
  153. Sanguinophobia - Fear of blood.
  154. Sinophobia - Fear of the chinese.
  155. Spectrophobia - Fear of ghosts
  156. Rectophobia - Fear of the rectum.
  157. Teutophobia - Fear of Germans.
  158. Triskaidekaphobia - Fear of the number 13.
  159. Trichophobia - Fear of hair.
  160. Xenophobia - Fear of outsiders, foreigners or anything that is alien.
  161. Xenoglossophobia - Fear of long words.
  162. Xylophobia - Fear of wood.
  163. Xanthophobia - Fear of the colour yellow.
  164. Zeusophobia - Fear of gods.
  165. Zoophobia - Fear of animals.

Merge?

I'm not sure why somebody applied a merge template to this page when it was previously split off from the Phobia page some time in the past. I went ahead and removed the merge templates from this page and the Phobia page. If this is disputed, perhaps a consensus can be reached first? — RJH 20:04, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Afrophobia. The lists on -phobia and Phobia got out of sync, and having them on a single place would make it easier to cleanup the cruft. That's probably why it was put up for merging. Spliting up the list would IMHO be just as good. --cesarb 23:56, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)