10 Jul Phobias, psychology and medical translation

Psychology is a main branch of medicine, it is the science of behaviour and mind. Phobias represent a big area of psychological knowledge; so medical translation also takes its slice of the cake from phobias and psychology in general. Phobias can be related to medical translation in different ways, from treatments and diagnosis to drugs. But what are the most peculiar phobias that a psychologist and a medical translator might face?

Xenophobia (fear of foreign people), arachnophobia (fear of spiders) or claustrophobia (fear of closed places) are some of the most common and well-known phobias all over the world, but not the only ones. What about the following ones that can be considered as rare?

Ablutophobia

Fear of bathing and cleaning. Medical translation has to deal with subjects related to personal hygiene and how it affects a human brain.

Anthophobia

Do you like flowers? Well, not everyone does. In fact, some people even are scared when seeing flowers. Psychology has to analyse why this reaction occurs in certain patients and – specially – how to cure and treat such mental disorder.

Sesquipedalofobia

This phobia means the fear of long words. Some people fear when seeing words having several characters (not suitable for German learners). It is highly related to linguistics, but it is a real mental disorder indeed.

Clausophobia

This is the fear of Santa Claus, and either kids and adults may suffer from this phobia. It does not mean that you do not like Christmas, but just this character. Why? The reasons may vary a lot from one person to another, and that is why psychology has to act.

Globophobia

This is related to balloons, but it can also be to any object with a similar shape. Mind can be tricky and many patients tend to imagine a balloon much more often that the logic can understand. And that is the reason why so many psychological studies and treatments are carried out. Medical translation is following them closely as health is at stake.

Lachanophobia

This is the fear of vegetables. If you are suffering from lachanophobia, it does not mean that you just do no like eating them (as many children may claim). But this means that you really get scared when seeing a vegetable.