English
Venustraphobia or Caligynephobia: to understand the meaning of those words we should have studied a bit of Greek and above all we should be prepared to read some very strange things. Have you guessed the meaning of Venustraphobia? It is the fear of beautiful women. There is also a word for those who fear laughter, sex, paper, the navel or even news stories. Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? Let’s discover if you suffer from some kind of phobia. In the cartoons on TV we sometimes see a cook that suffers from Musophobia or in other words he’s afraid of mice. This is not to be confused with Mageirocophobia or the fear of cooking as many men seem to suffer from this one!
The word phobia comes from Greek mythology and tells the story of Phobos, the personification of fear and horror, son of Ares and Aphrodite. His Roman equivalent was Timor, which resembles the word ‘fear’ or ‘temor’ in Spanish. Phobos is also the largest of the two moons of Mars and the closest to the planet. In everyday life, this phobia is not a rare disorder but it can cause problems and therefore may have to be treated. It can be cured with books, support groups, hypnosis, shock methods or something called exposure therapy: the gradual confrontation of this particular fear s and learn to control it.
One of the most common phobias is Arachnophobia (fear of spiders). Many people who have it, can not even see a photo of a spider. It is estimated that half of all women and 10% of men panic when they see those eight black legs. There is also a fear of birds and there are people who can not stand anything that flies – you can imagine what happens to the pigeons in the street! To get over this phobia you can begin by looking at feathers, then a drawing of a bird and thus gradually control your reaction.
And you may well ask, what is the origin of these fears? There is no exact answer, but a childhood trauma is often the cause. Another is our genetic makeup and is usually the reproduction of the fears of our parents. And there are phobias that are entirely cultural – the number 13 in west and the number 4 in the east.
Other very common phobias are fear of being locked in somewhere (Claustrophobia), fear of open spaces (Agoraphobia) or Fear of drafts, air swallowing, or airbourne noxious substances. (Aerophobia). There is a phobia that may have increased over the years and is called Politicophobia: this is like its name suggests, the rejection of politicians.
May you never have an uncontrollable fear of the wonderful European capitals because you might lose out on marvels like the Italian city of Milan. Book your flight, rent the best apartments in Milan and forget your fears.
