Anthropophobia
Encyclopedia
Anthropophobia or Anthrophobia (literally "fear of people", from , ánthropos, "man
Man
The term man is used for an adult human male . However, man is sometimes used to refer to humanity as a whole...

" and , phóbos, "fear
Fear
Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger...

"), also called interpersonal relation phobia or social phobia, is pathological fear of people or human company. It is prevalent amongst Chinese and Japanese societies.

Anthropophobia is an extreme, pathological form of shyness
Shyness
In humans, shyness is a social psychology term used to describe the feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness experienced when a person is in proximity to, approaching, or being approached by other people, especially in new situations or with unfamiliar people...

 and timidity
TiMidity
TiMidity++, originally and still frequently informally called TiMidity, is a software synthesizer that can play MIDI files without a hardware synthesizer...

. Being a form of social phobia, it may manifest as fears of blushing
Blushing
Blushing refers to the involuntary reddening of a person's face due to embarrassment or emotional stress, though it has been known to come from being lovestruck, or from some kind of romantic stimulation. It is thought that blushing is the result of an overactive sympathetic nervous system...

 or meeting others' gaze, awkwardness and uneasiness when appearing in society, etc. A specific Japanese cultural form is known as taijin kyofusho
Taijin kyofusho
Taijin kyofusho , is a Japanese culture-specific syndrome. The term taijin kyofusho literally means the disorder of fear of interpersonal relations . Dr...

.

Anthropophobia can be best defined as the fear of people in crowded situations, but can also go beyond and leave the person uncomfortable when being around just one person. Conditions vary depending on the person. Some cases are mild and can be handled while more serious cases can lead to complete social withdrawal and the exclusive use of written and electronic communication.
Like most phobias, anthropophobia can be traced back to traumatic experiences. Since social phobias are more complex than a fear of spiders or other organisms, it is believed that this specific phobia of people may be due to genetics and heredity.

Case Studies

In 2001 a study investigated the impact of anthropophobia in specific cultures. 50 patients diagnosed with anthropophobia, 50 patients diagnosed with neurasthenia
Neurasthenia
Neurasthenia is a psycho-pathological term first used by George Miller Beard in 1869 to denote a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, neuralgia and depressed mood...

, and 50 control subjects were recruited from hospitals in Beijing, China. Measures of anthropophobic and anxiety symptoms were administered to the subjects. The patients with anthropophobia could not even make eye contact with others and were afraid of being watched. The conclusion drawn was that anthropophobics, like neurasthenics, experience anxiety and depression, but "more cognitively and less somatic
Somatic
The term somatic means 'of the body',, relating to the body. In medicine, somatic illness is bodily, not mental, illness. The term is often used in biology to refer to the cells of the body in contrast to the germ line cells which usually give rise to the gametes...

ally".

See also

  • List of phobias
  • Social anxiety
    Social anxiety
    Social anxiety is anxiety about social situations, interactions with others, and being evaluated or scrutinized by other people...

  • Social anxiety disorder
    Social anxiety disorder
    Social anxiety disorder , also known as social phobia, is an anxiety disorder characterized by intense fear in social situations causing considerable distress and impaired ability to function in at least some parts of daily life...

  • Social phobia
    Social phobia
    Social phobia may refer to any of the following conditions:* Social anxiety disorder – a diagnosis referring to clinically excessive social anxiety...

  • Shyness
    Shyness
    In humans, shyness is a social psychology term used to describe the feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness experienced when a person is in proximity to, approaching, or being approached by other people, especially in new situations or with unfamiliar people...

  • Taijin kyofusho
    Taijin kyofusho
    Taijin kyofusho , is a Japanese culture-specific syndrome. The term taijin kyofusho literally means the disorder of fear of interpersonal relations . Dr...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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