Phobias and Manias
Phobias, fears, anxieties, dreads,
terrors, panics, and angst all contribute to our abhorrence of certain situations
and things. See what conditions cause you to abhor (excessively fear) what is usually
considered by most people to be a “normal situation”.
“Thanks for sending me a copy of your fine book. This thoughtful, comprehensive,
and genuinely useful guide to our phobias and manias helps us to feel less fear
about our fears and to learn a lot about the power of language to name everything.”
—Richard Lederer
Author of Anguished English; More Anguished English; Fractural English; The Bride
of Anguished English; Get Thee To a Punnery; Nothing Risqué, Nothing Gained;
Crazy English; The Miracle of Language; The Play of Words;
plus, believe it or not, additional titles.
“John Robertson’s An Excess of Phobias and Manias is a gem! The
comprehensive array of angst terms is attractively presented: the illustrations
and quotations are laced with humor and these elements help the reader to grasp
the concepts of terrors and obsessions; indeed, the format augments an understanding
of the concepts of the many phobias and manias that are presented in this book.
Robertson is an educator who knows how to attract and to hold the attention of his
readers from cover to cover.”
—Monroe Coburn, college teacher and author
Humans have a host of phobias, or irrational fears, and there is a name for just
about all of them. The names for our deepest dreads (phobias) include the Greek
root phobia, meaning “fear, terror, or hatred,” affixed to another
root, usually either Greek or Latin, and sometimes even non-Greek or non-Latin elements
are used with the phobia elements.
The book, An Excess of Phobias and Manias, has a particular question that
everyone should consider about phobias:
Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the adult afraid of the light?
—Maurice Freehill
An Excess of Phobias and Manias is dedicated to presenting LIGHT
about phobias and manias with both extended information and humor
so you can learn about and enjoy these various phobia presentations.
Psychologists and psychiatrists say that a fear becomes a phobia when it starts
affecting one’s daily life, when it becomes more and more difficult to cope
with life because of the problem.
In other words, there are irrational terrors or unreasonable fears that can be easily
avoided and there are fears that make good sense. One psychologists said, “If
I told you to imagine there was a snake on this floor and you started to panic thinking
of it, that’s phobic. If you looked down and saw a rattlesnake and said ‘Let’s
get the hell out of here,’ that’s common sense.”
There are millions of phobic Americans who suffer from anxieties that are not understood,
fears that can be totally debilitating, fears that overtake their rational minds,
terrors that paralyze the limbs and make the heart race and the stomach twitch with
nausea—these are the characteristics of excessive or abnormal fears
and loathings; in other words, genuine phobias!
Phobias include the following characteristics:
dreads, horrors, terrors, hatreds, anxieties, repulsions, abnormal fears, strong
aversions, panics, extreme frights, excessive antipathies, repulsions, revulsions,
and angst.
In addition to the many phobias, An Excess of Phobias and Manias contains
hundreds of manias which are characterized by compulsions, excessive cravings,
passions, obsessions, frenzies, insanities, madness, and even dementia.
There was a young metrophobic
Who hated to hear any verse.
He took a job as a poetry critic
Which made matters even worse.
—Anonymous
There are only two forces that unite men: fear and self-interest.
—Napoleon Bonparte
Is it possible that this quotation refers not only to fears, but also to manias
(forms of self-interest) or obsessions? As you examine the lists of manias in the
book, note how some of them are expressive of personal interests and even obsessions
or excessive desires.
True fears present signals in the presence of dangers; whereas unwarranted fears,
phobias, are a waste of time. True fears are based on perceptions from your
environment.
Unwarranted fears, phobias, are based on your imaginations or memories. Your survival
instincts are gifts from nature. What causes true fears, probably should.
Always listen to them; however, you should also strive to distinguish true fears
from the phobias.