A number of words have appeared with the suffix -phobia, in which "phobia" is understood as a negative attitude towards certain categories of people or other things, used in an analogy with the medical usage of the term. Usually thease kinds of "phobia" are is described as fear, dislike, disapproval, prejudice, hatred, discrimination, or hostility towards the object of the "phobia". Often this attitude is based on prejudices and is a particular case of general xenophobia.
A fear or hatred is not always considered a phobia in the clinical sense because it is believed to be only a symptom of other psychological problems, or the result of ignorance, or of political or social beliefs. In other words, unlike clinical phobias, which are usually qualified with the word "irrational", phobias of attitude usually have roots in social relations.
Below are some of these phobias:
Afrophobia, fear or dislike of Africans or African culture or people of African ancestry
Caucasophobia, fear or dislike of either peoples of Caucasus or people of Caucasian race
Christianophobia, fear or dislike of Christians
Islamophobia, fear or dislike of Muslims or Islamic culture
Ethnophobia, the usage exists in two fairly opposite meanings: fear or dislike of any ethnicity different from one's own, or dislike of one's own nation.
Homophobia, fear or dislike of homosexual people
Transphobia, fear or dislike of transgender or transsexual people.
Xenophobia, fear or dislike of strangers or the unknown, often used to describe nationalistic political beliefs and movements
Ephebophobia, irrational fear of adolescents gaining more rights or showing behavioral, emotional or social emancipation
Europhobia, a dislike of the political machinery surrounding the European Union.
Lisa Angelettie, M.S.W., is a psychotherapist, author, and an online advice expert. She has been helping people make smarter life choices since 1998. Visit her for Advice & Counseling, or take a free Depression Screening today.
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