Phobia

Psychologists use the term phobia, which comes from the Greek for fear, for a number of psychologic conditions that can seriously disable their carriers.

The name of a phobia contains a Greek word for what the patient fears plus -phobia; common phobias include these:

• acrophobia?, fear of heights
• arachnophobia, fear of spider?s
• agoraphobia?, fear of open places, from agora = public square
• aleurophobia?, fear of cats
• claustrophobia?, fear of small spaces

Psychiatrists often use virtual reality to desensitize patients to the feared thing.

In some cases, however, a fear or hatred is only based on ignorance?; psychologists do not classify these as true phobias.

• homophobia, fear of homosexual people
• xenophobia, fear of strangers or the unknown

See also angst, anxiety, disabilities

http://www.phobialist.com/

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