The repetition lies in the fact that most manias and phobias overlap, and often their mechanics and origins are very similar. Likewise, treatment is more often than not the same; e.g., exposure therapy to treat fears. Sometimes, you could see Summerscale struggling to add some originality to the entries - which, I'll admit, she thankfully did very well most of the time (every entry with a funny and/or extremely disturbing historical story about weird Victorians made my mornings a little bit better). It also helped that the book is gorgeous-looking, and contains lots of quirky illustrations (that might trigger some people that actually suffer from these fears and manias. Free therapy!).

Tetraphobia/Triskaidekaphobia - Fear of the number 4 and 13. Numbers only scare me when I have to do maths with them. GERASCOPHOBIA- fear of growing old “no more adulting thank you” my pharmacy director will stare at my face and say as if in awe”you don’t have any wrinkles just the tiny ones by your eyes you don’t even have them on your forehead” I’m 50 years fabulous. Also I keep telling my daughter to lie about her age so when I lie about mine it makes sense Delightful period piece . . . always prescient about the social status of the women she studies, Summerscale notes that Alma was the very model of a colorless, faceless, powerless housewife. But a housewife with psychic powers could escape those social constraints.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review Claustrophobia - Fear of enclosed spaces. This is possibly the only one I actually really suffer from. Not extremely, but I have been in situations where I broke out in cold sweats and tears when I was in a small space. Personally, I don’t care much for heights (acrophobia) though I’m fine if I’m in a fully enclosed area like a building or a plane. I am also afraid of sharks (galeophobia) and by extension I don’t like being in deep water (thalassophobia). My fears aren’t quite severe enough to warrant diagnosis as a phobia though.Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones facing down a cobra in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981). Photo: Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection I was clearly more intrigued by what scares people than what they are excited by or feel compelled to do, but as the author writes at some point, aversion and attraction are two sides of the same coin. They both equal obsession. When you fear something to the point of it being a phobia, you are constantly on the lookout for it. In wishing to avoid it, you are constantly making it the center of your thoughts and experiences. The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance.

Allerdings zeigt das Cover auch meine persönliche Arachnophobie: Eine realistisch aussehende Spinne. Manche Leute könnten das Buch allein deswegen vielleicht gar nicht in die Hand nehmen. Es wirkt etwas makaber, aber ich finde es dennoch originell. In „Das Buch der Phobien & Manien“ nimmt uns Kate Summerscale mit auf eine spannende Reise durch die vielschichtige Welt der menschlichen Ängste und Obsessionen. Mithilfe von Fallstudien und einer sorgfältig recherchierten historischen Perspektive führt uns Summerscale durch die Geschichte, beginnend im Mittelalter bis hin zur heutigen Zeit. Ovophobia - Fear of/aversion to eggs. This seems like a rare one and yet I know someone who likely has it: they can't even stand the smell of them! Tulipomania - Since I'm Dutch, it's probably lingering somewhere in my genes, ready to be triggered.

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Mysophobia - Fear of defilement and contamination. Absolutely my dad, especially if excessive hand-washing counts towards this. Bonus phobia: arithmomania-the desire to count or preoccupation with math "but this one goes to 11"

Dromomania - The compulsion to wander. That's what I get when I have a deadline coming up or an important task to finish. Das Buch zeigt 99 Obsessionen auf, von denen einige allgemein bekannt sind, wie beispielsweise die Furcht vor Spinnen oder die Angst vor dem Fliegen, während andere eher ungewöhnlich und überraschend sind, wie beispielsweise die Angst vor Knöpfen oder die Abneigung gegenüber Federn. Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.

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Die Aufmachung vom Buch durch die Bindung und der Goldfolierung ist wahnsinnig hübsch und die kleinen Bilder liefern noch dazu eine schöne Veranschaulichung mancher Ängste! Bonus phobia: koumpounophobia-fear of buttons Steve Jobs had this couldn’t stand keyboards and dress shirts Summerscale, author of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher and other well-regarded books, lists 99 fears and compulsions, and the result is a peculiarly engaging book. Phobias are more common than one might think, with surveys suggesting that more than 7% of people will experience a phobia at some point. Phobias are often hard to define, although most medical researchers characterize it as an irrational fear that affects a person’s daily life. Some phobias have an evolutionary component. The fear of snakes, called ophidiophobia, makes sense given that many are poisonous. Much the same can be said for spiders and rats. However, the fears of feathers, popcorn, and balloons are odd. The fear of the number four, tetraphobia, is so deeply embedded in various Asian cultures that some hotels do not have floors or rooms with the number, apparently because in some of the region’s languages the word four sounds like the word death. As the author shows, the other side of the coin, manias, or the compulsion to act, can be just as disturbing. Hoarding falls into this category, but there are also communal manias. For example, Summerscale recounts the tale of “tulip mania” in Holland in the 1630s, when a collective obsession with tulip bulbs sent prices soaring to insane levels before crashing and ruining the economy. The author sometimes writes with her tongue in her cheek—e.g., in her descriptions of aibohphobia, the fear of palindromes, and nomophobia, the fear of losing one’s mobile phone—but she is clearly aware that phobias and manias can be serious psychological conditions. The author carefully treads the line between the oddness of her subject and sympathy for the people affected, and she notes that many phobias can be treated, usually by controlled doses of exposure. Todas ellas están ordenadas alfabéticamente y en cada término describiremos su nombre,definición clara y concisa y también datos y casos científicos reales bastante curiosos e interesantes(muchos de ellos se remontan a diferentes siglos)de pacientes q las han padecido y cómo han podido o no superarlas. A phobia is a persistent, overwhelming and debilitating fear, often with irrational cause. For the purposes of diagnosis, that fear must interfere with normal functioning. In her introduction, Summerscale discusses how some fears are considered to have a evolutionary purpose, a reflex to protect us from external threats, like snakes (Ophidiophobia) for example. Others may be a result of personal experience, for example someone may develop a fear of dogs (cynophobia) after being bitten by one; or cultural conditioning, like the fear of being without a mobile phone (nomophobia). Some fears, like most mania’s, may be related to chemical imbalances in the brain. A mania is often an overwhelming compulsion to do something, like stealing (kleptomania) or oniomania (shopping). A mania may also stem from a delusion, such as the false belief that one is desired (erotomania), and can affect clusters of people.

Erythrophobia - Fear of blushing. Teenage and early 20s me suffered this; sometimes I started blushing before talking to someone because I was afraid I would anyway. It doesn't help that I have that Northern European rosacea-prone skin.

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Aibophobia - Fear of palindromes. Yes, it might seem jokey to you, but now it's spoken into existence, and it might become a real problem, just you wait and see. Ich fand es sehr interessant zu lesen, dass viele Menschen unter denselben Ängsten leiden und man nicht allein mit seiner Angst ist.