In 1798 Benjamin Rush wrote the first “scientific” analysis of phobias when he identified 18 specific phobias, some of which were satirical. He wrote: “The insect phobia. This disease is 
peculiar to the female sex. A spider, a flea, or a musqueto (sic) alighting upon a lady’s neck has often produced an hysterical fit…” Okay, I put my hand up. I wouldn’t like a musqueto alighting on my neck – for good reason since we know they can carry malaria – although I don’t think I would become hysterical over it. And I have seen grown men reduced to gibbering wrecks by some insects. But leaving aside Mr Rush’s bias, I think a historical look at phobias is really interesting. Maybe that’s just because I sometimes suffer from claustrophobia and a darkened, enclosed space can induce a panic attack in me. I’ve often thought that throughout history people must have responded to their fears in exactly the same way that we do now and I wondered how they referred to it and what, if anything, were the treatments for it.
The word phobia comes from the Greek meaning panic, fear, terror and flight. The God Phobos was honoured for provoking fear and flight in the Greeks’ enemies. Until the mid-nineteenth century the word “phobia” was only used in the sense of “hydrophobia” which was a term for Rabies. It was another 75 years before the word “phobia” was attached to a set of diagnostic criteria and came to mean: “A persistent, abnormal and irrational fear of a situation or thing that compels one to avoid it despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous.” Early accounts of phobias arise in medical and philosophical writings from the Ancient Greek and Roman periods. Hippocrates recorded the case of a man taken by an irrational terror when he heard the sound of a flute at a banquet in the evenings. He was fine if he heard a flute during the day but not at night. Hippocrates also mentioned a man with a fear of heights and another with a cat phobia. Hippocrates put these fears down to “melancholia,” suffering from an excess of black bile, which was one of the three major types of insanity. Later physicians also attributed phobias to this melancholy over-heating of the brain and the belief persisted well into the 18th century. I couldn’t find much reference to treatments other than blood-letting but in one case the treatment for Hydrophobia was to throw the patient into a water tank when he was off his guard! If he could swim (which presumably they wouldn’t find out until he was in there) then he should be pushed under; if he couldn’t swim he should be allowed to sink underwater and then fished out. There is no record of this treatment being successful…
In the intervening time from the Ancient World to the late 18th century references to phobias mainly occur in theological texts. During this period they were seen as manifestations of 
evil spirits and sufferers were sometimes subject to exorcism as a cure. Two very specific phobias recorded were Plague Phobia in the late 16th and early 17th century and Syphilophobia (fear of syphilis) in the 17th and 18th centuries. Both of these seem entirely understandable phobias to develop. In 1650 Descartes wrote about phobias to objects as diverse as roses and cats, and Shakespeare described animal phobia in The Merchant of Venice: “Some men there are that love on a gaping pig; Some that are mad when they behod a cat…” (Cats seem to feature large in historical phobias).
During the 18th and 19th centuries there were several attempts to understand and classify phobias in a medical context. Pinel called it “mania without delirium.” Esquirol called it “emotional delirium.” Theories on the cause of phobias varied from stomach ailments to a poor upbringing. In 1872 a seminal work about agoraphobia referred to three male patients with the following symptoms: “impossibility of walking through certain streets or squares, or possibility of so doing only with resultant dread of anxiety…” So it wasn’t just women who suffered from phobias. Of course not. But during the Victorian period particularly there was a cultural approach to seeing women as “hysterics” who needed to be treated with drugs, or sex, or who, in the worst examples, were locked up in an asylum because they were categorised as “mad” simply because they had a certain phobia.
Do you suffer from a phobia? I drew on my own experience of claustrophobia when I was writing Mistress by Midnight in which Merryn and Garrick are trapped in a fallen building during the London Beer Flood.
I suffer from Arachnophobia! Little spiders I can deal with, but bigger ones just scare the you know what out of me. We actually have a special tool called a spider catcher (I’m not kidding – it actually exists) that I use to get spiders out of the house without hurting them. Though I have to hope we never get one of the really big hairy ones, cause I’m pretty sure the catcher wouldn’t be strong enough.
http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?p=56114&cat=2,51555
Teresa, I think it’s lovely that there’s a humane way to catch and evict spiders! I don’t like them myself so I can see where you are coming from on that. I’m not phobic but definitely don’t like the big, hairy ones. I almost stood on a tarantula once when we were on holiday in Costa Rica so maybe that’s why!
I confess to having a real phobia about mioce and rats. I can’t stand the long thin hair-less tales, I just go hysterical if either crosses my path.
I feel a wimp but I just can’t help it.
Yes, I understand the unpleasantness of the hairless tail, Margaret. It’s Not Nice. I don’t mind mice too much but rats are horrid.
well i do not believe I have a real phobia although I detest heights. On another note I just finished reading a couple of very good books. The first is “Defiant” by Kris Kennedy. very excellent book it takes place during the time of King John. It has twists and turns but of course the hero falls in love with the heroine and they are at the beginning against eachother because they are after the same thing.. very excellent read although one thing did irritate me and that was that every other page there were multiple grammatical errors,repitions, or misspellings. This irritated me quite so because I thought that it should be a minimum after it gets edited and what not… but does not deter me from reccomending this book.
Now about the second book and that was your very own “Kidnapped”. I love love love it. My favorite part was that at the beginning of each chapter you told in a short sentence what would happen in it.. I loved that kept me reading just to find out how it happened. Not that I needed incentive to read it. It was plain amazing and I like the little twist with the aunts. Excellent job definately reccommend to people who have not read it and I will read it again. Thank you again for another splendid read!
Hi Jami! Yes, I think there’s a difference between being phobic and disliking something intensely.
I like the sound of the Kris Kennedy book – what an interesting setting. But it’s a shame about the errors because that can pull you right out of the story. Even so, I’ll look out for this one since you recommend it so strongly.
And thank you so much for your comments about Kidnapped. I’m thrilled you enjoyed it. It’s one of my books that I particularly liked writing, maybe because it’s my only Scottish-set book (so far!)and I love Scotland so very much. It was huge fun to write and I always feel very happy when someone enjoy it so thank you for making my weekend!
I hate enclosed spaces like lifts and would probably freak out if I was stuck on the underground in a tunnel or something! Hate spiders, cockroaches and any creature with more than four legs, but I don’t think that’s a phobia as I’m capable of dealing with them if I have to.
Very interesting post, Nicola!
Thank you, Christina, I’m glad you thought it was interesting. Yes, caves and tunnels are pretty scary if you don’t like dark, enclosed underground spaces! That’s close to my worst nightmare.
II think I’m beginning to get a phobia about old age, Nicola! So many scary articles about people with Altzeimers etc, the lack of funding and carers and horror of seeing oneself getting more decrepit and incapable. Eeek! I’d rather have a bucketful of spiders.
Yes, it’s quite frightening, isn’t it, Lorri. I can see how such a phobia might develop. Interesting how personal these things are. I dislike spiders and most insects and I fear getting old and being decrepit but I’m terrified of dark, enclosed spaces.