Has anyone ever given thought to phobias? I'm not talking about the psychological aspect of them, the deeper, Freudian meaning, but about the phobias themselves. There are some that many people have, like claustrophobia, which is the fear of enclosed spaces. The opposite of this would be agoraphobia, the fear of open or public places. Combine that with acrophobia, the fear of high places, you get aeroacrophobia, the fear of high, open places. Now, that's where phobias start to confuse me. If someone were to have aeroacrophobia, would they be afraid of open places and high places seperately, or only together? Do people with basiphobia, the fear of falling, have an actual fear of falling, or are they afraid of hitting the ground after the fall?
But even though they may confuse some simple minded people such as myself, they are fairly common. So what about the uncommon phobias, the ones that you rarely hear about? Automatonophobia for instance, is the fear of a ventriloquist's dummy. Sure, they're creepy and unnatural, but to fear them? That's something else all together! How does that fear even get started? Did a dummy beat you up and take your lunch money during recess every day for all of grammar school? Forgetting even how the phobia came about, how practical is it to be afraid of a ventriloquist's dummy? In all my 18 years, I've seen maybe one, and it was in a box. Not very scary. Do automatonophobics think that there is a dummy lying in the darkened corner of a room...its beady glass eyes just staring back at them..staring...staring...STARING....moving on.
End speech.
Pteronophobia. Not the fear of being tickled. Not the fear of feathers. But the specific fear of being tickled with a feather. Were you frightened at your pillow stuffing job, and now the soft touch of goosedown sends you screaming down the hall, instead of giggling...down the hall? Are you afraid to go to sleep, for fear of waking up, trapped inside your pillow...well that's kind of scary itself actually, nevermind. But besides all that, feathers are harmless! At least with the dummies, if you got hit with one they hurt! Getting back to the combination of phobias, if you were to combine pteronophobia with marinthophobia, the fear of being tied up, you get...well, you get a good time, BUT! That's another day, another speech, and another audience.
Are you someone who changed thier name, or are you new?
