The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-02-24
MORBID FEAR.
The Many Forms 1t Takes and the
Methods of Treating 1t.

Even among people of the greatest intel
IIgence and apparently sound mind there
are many who are victims OF emotional OBJ
sessions which control their actions and
thoughts beyond the power of reason or
resistance. When these mental aberra
lions become known to a persons friends
they call him, In common language
cracked and are apt to consider him as
upon the border line OF insanity. perhaps
truly. for they will remain all their lives
subject to influences over which they have
no control. and the symptoms which they
manifest are as Ball has truly said. 1.-The
preface of a story which will never be
ended These cases OF mental instability
often form fruitful texts for writer's of &C.
ton the Russians and Scandinaviars he
ing especially fond of portraying such sub
jesgs But these writer's skim over heir
subject in a superficial manner. whiie t,-re
are few scientific writers who have studied
the subject thoroughly
The victims of true morbid fear are the
prey of morbid dread, full of anguish, sud-
len and irresistible, which possesses them
III spite of all reason. Hereditary nervous
ress effeminate education. social excuses.
ana all forms of excessive or unrsstrained
emotion are among the chief causes of NOR
bid fear, but 20 enumerate all the varieties
woIild re an endless task. Cla ssiicat:on
ever Is difficult. but among the first should
be named phobophobia a fear of fear,
and Iautophobia, a fear of everything.
Even the smallest object may cause NOR
bid fear. There is aichmophobia, for ex-
ample a fear of pointed articles. such as
needles. pins, fish bones, daggers, etc. Not
an uncommon example OF this is the case
of one who abstains from eating fish for
fear of getting fish bone in his throat.
There is agoraphobia, fear of open spaces
or crowds. Pascal was notable example
of such a nervous whim, which assumes
many strange forms. Such a persoR for
example, cannot cross public place, dares
not stand at a window. enter a theater, a
church, or even railroad sttion. Then,
there is q variety OF this dread known as
thalassophobia, fear of the ocean, with
which Heraclius, Nicolas, and Peter the
Great were afflicted.
Claustrophobia is, on the contrary,
fear of closed spaces: a person thus af-
flicted. when placed in a small or closed
chamber, is attacked with trembling, YER
tigo and terrible agony. The fear of dark
more especially in children. and may cause
commissions. On the other hand, astro-
phobia. a fear of looking upward at the
sky, is more rare. Bruick records a case
in which. strange to say. priest was If
flicted with this fear, and was advised by
his physician never to venture out of doors
without umbrella. which he opened
when he was seized with this fear An
oil, e
storm, of which CaIigula was victim.
Under this same head might be placed a
common fear of the weather, especially of
cold, which leads people to take extraor--
binary precautions in the way of clothing
| and in many cases leads to perpetual ex-
lie and expatriation in warmer chimes.
Mysophobia, in a mild form, is very
good thing to be possessed of; 1t is a horror
OF dirt. Persons thus afflicted in a NOR
bid degree are continually wiping plates
| glasses and all their tableware. busting
chairs, sweeping carpets, brushing their
| clothes and washing their hands with ex-
ceeding and painful attention to details.
Hematophobia is morbid fear which
| is exceedingly common. usually hereditary.
and one that no physician should suffer
| from; it is fear of blood. Necrophobia
or fear of the dead, and thanatophobia
! or fear of death, frequent in nervous
persons and common even in those who
are not subject to any other manifesto
| tion of nerves. Anthrophobia is fear of
| man, the victim having a dread of look
! ing a man in the face, and having an
especial dread of social gatherings; gyno-
phobia is an analogous fear of women,
but neither of these should be confused
with misanthropy or misogyny, man and
woman hating there being in the one
class morbid fear uncomfortable by the
will, while in the other the hate is arti-
ficially and voluntarily induced, harden
ing of the mind. On the other hand, there
is amonophobia, fear of living alone
a constant desire to minge with a crowd
a phobia of which Poe was model ex-
ample.
With the discovery of new forces, with
the perfection of new inventions, with the
advance of knowledge. many people become
affected with new forms of morbid fear
| which could not have existed in former
| times. There is, for example, siderodromo-
| phobia, a fear of railway travelling in
| which the person travels by rail only in
| case of necessity, and always with sick
| ening fear that some accident may happen
| With the advent of electric cars there has
| arisen another morbid dread in which the
| person is fearful Of being run down by
| these monsters, which they term modern
| Juggernauts.
| There is also a morbid state connected
| with electric cars which may have some
| foundation in fact. Many nervous people,
| especially women, claim that riding on
| electric cars has a direct influence on their
/ health, physical or psychical, which they
refer to the subtle influence of an electro
| cal environment. Both of these, as yet
without a technical name, may be called
| electrodromophobia. Before the advent of
| electric there was morbid fear, also
| as yet unnamed. which might be called
| siderophobia, a fear of iron. This, in the
| first case, was doubtless due to the common
use of iron gratings and coal covers in city
| sidewalks. which, becoming smooth. also
| became slippery. and thus caused many
| straining slips and sometimes fatal fails
| to those who unwarily trod upon them
| Hence arose a persistent avoidance of all
| iron articles in the street. the person some
| times going to some trouble to avoid STEP
! ping upon them. With the advent of cleo
| tricity of high power this fear of iron was