Clinical and Cultural Understandings of Phobia Terminology : Wild and Domesticated

Where does phobia terminology come from? How do popular concepts of phobias relate to diagnostic categories used in clinical research and practice?

Beginning with phobia concepts of hydrophobia (fear of water in rabies patients) and lyssophobia (fear of becoming insane) that emerged and captured the public imagination in the nineteenth century, Gregory A. Burton traces the history of phobia terminology and interrogates the gap between clinical and popular understandings of phobias.

The book seeks to understand the divergence of what Burton terms “wild” phobias that appear as a part of scientific research and clinical studies, and “domesticated” phobias that appear primarily or even exclusively in popular lists of phobias from non-scientific sources. It argues that the public concept of phobias seems to have almost nothing to do with the concept as a clinical category. Despite the ever-expanding lists of Greek phobia terms such as globophobia (an intense fear of balloons) and triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number thirteen), the DSM-V in fact only recognizes five distinct categories of phobia. Clinical and scientific literature emphasizes versatile therapeutic techniques that address phobias in different manifestations, and relatively few distinct phobia terms are directly addressed.

Burton explores the cultural influences on the proliferation of phobia terms in the public sphere, such as fascination with lists and terms used for political purposes. He also examines fracturing theoretical camps of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists who warn against the uncontrolled coinage of new phobia categories, versus those who adopt “the more the merrier” approach to new phobia terms.

This original exploration will be of interest to scholars and students of the history of psychiatry and psychology, as well as those interested in clinical and cultural understandings of mental health and psychological conditions.