Clandestine phobia. Square phobia. Thirteen phobias. All of these names have one thing in common: they add mystery and confusion to what is already the most difficult aspect of human behavior.

Phobia has been classified according to its obvious triggers; the object or situation that caused fear. These triggers are usually worn in exotic Greek and Latin labels, providing a more scientific air for each phobia.

Unfortunately, the traditional terror classification system has no inspiration for real but hidden mechanisms that are responsible for creating and shaping terrorist acts. In fact, this Greek and Latin name can cause a lot of damage.

Because it does not encourage us to look for potential commonalities in many secrets that can release terrorist acts, but to convince many people that these secrets are already known.

To make matters worse, this classification system inadvertently led many doctors to believe that each type of phobia, xenophobia, phobia, etc., is an independent, unique disease, in addition to obvious similarities, and other He has nothing to do with phobia. symptom.

what name?

The shortcomings of traditional classification systems are best illustrated by some examples.

Suppose a woman is gay and phobia. What do these two labels tell us, except that she is afraid of dogs and vast spaces?

According to the current classification system, this woman has two different phobias, each requiring individual treatment. But if her fear of the dog stems from the real fear of being chased by the dog into the vast space, the street [reality, because it happens to her]. If so, her fear of the dog is clearly part of her fear of the spacious space. These two are not separate diseases.

If she is to receive appropriate treatment, the link between this woman's phobia and her female phobia is crucial. But traditional classification systems do not encourage doctors to look for this relationship. Let us look at another example.

Fear of flying:

Four men suffer from phobias and are afraid of flying. Although all four men are classified as having the same disease, a close examination may reveal that each fear is for a completely different reason.

For example, a man may be afraid of flying because his neighbor was recently killed in a plane crash. Another person may be afraid, because the plane flies over the water and he can't swim, so he won't be afraid of all the flights, just flying over the water. The third possibility is to fear small enclosed spaces, such as aircraft cabins. And the fourth person may be afraid of height.

Each of these possibilities indicates that the mechanisms responsible for flight fear are completely different. More importantly, these differences clearly indicate that each case may require a different treatment.

But once we call all four men "airborne phobias," we will make a tragic mistake without knowing it. Because our label means a common mechanism that leads to the fear of all four people. This is no more meaningful than assuming that four men of the same name have the same mother. But in fact, this is exactly what we are doing.

This kind of mistake can only encourage doctors and other therapists to find answers in all wrong directions. Worse, it encourages them to have all four people receive the same treatment. At best, the results of this treatment will be less than satisfactory for at least three of the four treatments.

Two defects in the system:

These examples clearly show that our traditional classification system masks two important characteristics of terrorist behavior:

o Different names of phobias may have the same underlying mechanism.

o The phobia of the same name may have distinct potential mechanisms.

Superficial terror triggers provide important clues to understanding terrorist behavior, but they are only one aspect of highly complex terrorist phenomena.

By focusing only on these triggers, we ignore the more important underlying mechanisms for creating and shaping terrorist behavior. This can interfere with our ability to make accurate diagnoses and prevent us from developing successful treatments.

Specific phobia – the mystery and confusion of the phobia classification system! was originally published on Spring