Saturday, January 12, 2008

fear of phobias

the times yesterday picked up a cute little story from the new scientist magazine about the proliferation of obscure phobias that plague modern humans. i cannot seem to find the original online, although i can offer you this site, through which you may find a gazillion phobias and their definitions.

meanwhile, examples in the times include:

Coulrophobia - fear of clowns
Francophobia - fear of the french
Lutraphobia - fear of otters
Octophobia - fear of the number eight
Paraskavedekatriaphobia - fear of friday the thirteenth

the times article concluded: "It was left to Alexander Gardner, a psychologist, to sum up the proliferation of phobias. “I have a fear of Times reporters,” he said. “I have to go.”"

No comments:

Post a Comment