What are you irrationally scared of? What is the thing that, if you see it, means there is likely to be a you-shaped hole in the nearest wall as you flee in panic? For me, it is stray hairs – anywhere, though in the bath or shower is worst. I could throw up just thinking about it. I would also kill a clown as soon as look at one, but I don’t consider that a phobia. It is a well-grounded, sensible protective instinct because clowns are clearly wrong on every level.
We are all, I suspect, scared of, repulsed by, or rendered incoherent with disgust about something that others approach with perfect equanimity. However sensible you are, however sanguine and reasonable, it seems a part of every human brain cannot be content without sabotaging your smooth passage through life. The Fear Clinic: Face Your Phobia, a series somewhere between a documentary and a reality show, is set in a facility in Amsterdam that treats phobics of all stripes with a revolutionary treatment that boasts a 90% success rate. I bet it’s the coulrophobics who resist. Because we don’t want to die!
