Talk:Phobia
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Old talk
Could we please distinguish in the article and the list between psychologically-recognized phobias (not that I think the APA is god, or anything, but they at least have a process) and political terms like 'xenophobia' and 'homophobia'? The article is already admitting a distinction in the current last sentence, 'In some cases, however, a fear or hatred is only based on ignorance', but it's not very clear. --MichaelTinkler
WHat is NIMH? -- Tarquin
- It's the National Institute of Medical Herbalists... I mean of Mental Health. --Camembert
What happened to the list of phobias that was once linked from this page? It now links to "-phobia" on Wiktionary, which does list some, but not very many. Wiktionary was copying the list over from Wikipedia, but now these have gone (although they can probably be recovered from the history). — Paul G 08:41, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
- It's at -phobia, not on wiktionary. -- User:Docu
First sentence unclear to me
"Psychologists use the term phobia, which comes from the Ancient Greek word for fear (φόβος, fobos), for a number of psychological conditions that can seriously disable their carriers."
Don't understand this sentence. It can seriously disable not only the carriers of psychologists. It may even enhance their carriers if they specialize on the treatmen of phobias.
Or is this a joke?
Geraldstiehler 11:31, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
And again: It's not only psychologists using this term. Physicians and even the WHO do as well. Geraldstiehler 10:29, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Fixed. Ortolan88 19:37, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Much better now! Thanks
Not what I'd call an authoritative list
The list of phobias is in serious need of editing by someone qualified on the subject. It's full of duplicates, ambiguities, and a few entries that might have been just a joke. ("Fear of the band CKY"? Is that for real?) It's also desperately in need of some basic alphabetizing. Could some professional please spend a few minutes cleaning this up?
- I agree. A good look in the dictionary, will help. For starters: The correct words are triskaidekaphobia and paraskavedekatriaphobia. Uncle G 11:39, 2005 Mar 26 (UTC)
History
Any ideas who/when first used this term in (a) medical (2) non-medical senses? In general, the history of the term usage is missing. mikka (t) 23:39, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)
non-clinical phobia
I was surprised with negative reaction to my separation of part of this aricle into a separate one. I did this for the simple reason of disambiguation: I found it strange that the article, e.g., Homophobia links to a medical article "phobia", which could suggest that homophobia is kind of disease (which may well be the intention of those who coined the term. I am aware that the phobia article has the section "non-medical usage of the term", but it is somewhere down the flow an not ery prominent. Therefore I did what is normal in wikipedia: I performed disambiguation. And was baffled with the vote: Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Phobia (attitude)
My POV is very simple: the two usages are radically different, and this is even reflected in dictionary definitions, despite some people who evidently didn't take pain to look into one. What is the opposite? I see two possibilities.
- Usages are basically the same (which would I find really strange)
- The first usage is "normal", the second one is abuse. Which I disagree as well. The language simply "re-used" the term to describe a certain notion, which otherwise (in every "pseudo-phobia" article I listed) reuires several words: "fear or hatred", "fear and discrimination", etc.
Now, some don't like the word "attitude". What is this then? It is not disease. It is not an emotion: all articles mention discrimination or some similar actions. This is conveniently described by the word "attitude" IMO. Of course, I am not a native English speaker. You are welcome to suggest another word here. mikka (t) 15:14, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I don't mind the word "attitude", I just don't think it's appropriate in this context. What is described by phobia (attitude) is already covered at prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance. Meanwhile, such "phobias" are covered already in -phobia. That English would reuse a word, however, with completely opposite meanings, is not that shocking. Look up "cleave" sometime. :-) Kol tov. Tomer TALK 15:27, Jun 22, 2005 (UTC)
- That's my point exactly: all three are conveniently described by a single word: "phobia".
- There is no regular word "-phobia". What you/we understand under "-phobia" is covered in dictionaries under "phobia". Not to say that -phobia article is one big joke and needs cleanup, together with -philia. These articles are part of series of articles about english suffixes, -philia not only puts oranges and orangs into one basket, it throws in a couple of orcs as well. mikka (t) 15:43, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Prejudice
At the VfD I see someone sugested the word prejudice as a kind of synonym or additional meaning for "-phobia". IMO it is incorrect. A "-phobia" may be a result of a prejudice, but it may also be a result of mis-judgement, negative experience. Slapping the sticker "prejudice" is not better. If one would follow this logic, then nearly all our negative opinions are effectively prejudice, unless proved in the court of law, since our experience is inherently limited. (Even if they are based on opinion of experts, this does not free us from prejudiced of experts themselves).
Summary: "-phobia" may be a result of prejudice, but not prejudice itself. mikka (t) 15:31, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- I think you are confusing the what the various "non-clinical" phobia terms actually mean and how they are ysed. For example, homophobia may actually be a real phobia (there are some studes into this) and fear of homosexuals has been used as legal defenses in other situations. However, homophobia is also now used to simply describe prejudice against homosexuals without refernence to fear. Similarly, islamophobia is defined as prejudice against Islam and muslims without reference to fear or anxiety (although that is a possible sub-text). Axon 10:03, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)