Forum: english.stackexchange.com
Tags: <meaning><single-word-requests><nouns><antonyms>
Title: Word meaning the reverse of 'Xenophobia'
Question: Xenophobia refers to the irrational fear or hatred of foreigners. But recently I've seen people displaying (in newspaper articles and other places) an irrational fear or hatred of their own countrymen. Is there a word for that?

Answers:
sents: text: Wiktionary says : Antonyms xenomania xenophilia xenophily allophilia (more general)
text: This is, however, not exactly what you are looking for, since being attracted to foreigners does not imply hating your compatriots.
text: Allophilia won't fly at all, because it's an antonym for all kinds of prejudice.
text: I think your best bet is just to be specific: anti-Americanism, anti-Canadianism, anti-Ukrainian sentiment, anti-Irish sentiment, sinophobia, lusophobia and so forth: Americans are increasingly displaying anti-Americanism.
text: Sinophobia is on the rise in China.
text: Russian teenagers are showing signs of anti-Russian sentiment.
text: This will be understood by far more people than any generic term for "irrational fear or hatred of one's own countrymen
text: " we can come up with.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/300/RegDwigнt
score: 18
sents: text: Not a word, but phrases frequently (mis-)used: self-loathing , self-hating .
text: For instance, Wikipedia has an article called self-hating Jew
text: (whatever the validity of the term).
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/77/ShreevatsaR
score: 6
sents: text: Would it not be simpler to say that person is prejudiced against foreigners and that person is prejudiced against his own country rather than to try to misappropriate yet another medical term?
text: A phobia once meant a medical condition.
text: Unfortunately xenophobia's medical use as fear of foreigners has been corrupted by use as a kind of fancy synonym for racism.
text: Similarly for silly words like homophobia , which means "prejudice against homosexuals" rather than " fear of homosexuals".
text: Medical words are often subjected to this kind of mistreatment.
text: Take "nutritional value", which, to a nutritionist, means "the number of calories in a food".
text: This word has been corrupted in common usage to the extent that people say things like "McDonald's food has no nutritional value" as a way of claiming that McDonald's food is not healthy.
text: The speaker wants to add credibility to her claim about healthiness by using a fancy "medical" word which she actually doesn't understand, in effect saying that a type of food high in calories contains no calories at all.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/None/
score: 4
sents: text: I came across this possibility today: oikophobia , which sounds like what I was looking for.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/305/Brian Hooper
score: 3
sents: text: Oikophobia means fearing your ambience.
text: There is no specific term for fearing one's own community people or local people.
text: It is generally sociophobia .
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/31818/kalaiselvan
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
Whilst there is no term to describe such a concept, it's possible that the best equivalent of "xenophobia" when referring to one's own countrymen is to be specific and say, for example "anti-Americanism" or "anti-Canadianism". The term "self-loathing" or "self-hating" may also work in this context.
There is no specific term so best use a term using anti- plus the relevant nationality, e.g. anti-American or a term such as "prejudiced against".
Whilst there is no term to describe such a concept, it's possible that the best equivalent of "xenophobia" when referring to one's own countrymen is to be specific and say, for example "anti-Americanism" or "anti-Canadianism". The term "self-loathing" or "self-hating" may also work in this context.
Wiktionary  offers the antonyms:   xenomania, xenophilia, xenophily and allophilia, but these are not exactly what you are looking for, since being attracted to foreigners does not imply hating your compatriots.  Your best bet is just to be specific: anti-Americanism, anti-Canadianism, anti-Ukrainian sentiment, anti-Irish sentiment, sinophobia, lusophobia and so forth:    Americans are increasingly displaying anti-Americanism.  Oikophobia  means fearing your ambience and could be suitable.
There is no specific term for fearing one's own community people or local people.
There does not appear to be a single term to describe a fear of one's own community. However, one potential term could be "Sociophobia". Otherwise, it might be more effective to use a more specific term such as "anti-american" or "anti-russian".