Fear of fish or ichthyophobia ranges from cultural phenomena such as
fear
Fear is an unpleasant emotion that arises in response to perception, perceived dangers or threats. Fear causes physiological and psychological changes. It may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the ...
of eating
fish
A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...
, fear of touching raw fish, or fear of
dead
Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sho ...
fish, up to
irrational fear (
specific phobia
Specific phobia is an anxiety disorder, characterized by an extreme, unreasonable, and irrational fear associated with a specific object, situation, or concept which poses little or no actual danger. Specific phobia can lead to avoidance of the o ...
). Selachophobia, or
galeophobia, is the specific
fear of sharks.
[Galeophobia](_blank)
in medical dictionary.
Etymology
The term ''ichthyophobia'' comes from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
ἰχθῦς - ''ichthus'', meaning "fish" and φόβος - ''phobos'', "fear". ''
Galeophobia'' comes from the Greek γαλεός - ''galeos'', "small shark".
Phobia
Ichthyophobia is described in ''Psychology: An International Perspective'' as an "unusual" specific phobia.
[Michael W. Eysenck. ''Psychology: An International Perspective'', Psychology Press, 2004, p839, ] Both symptoms and remedies of ichthyophobia are common to most specific phobias.
American psychologist
John B. Watson
John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a List of psychological schools, psychological school.Cohn, Aaron S. 2014.Watson, J ...
, a renowned name in
behaviorism
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understand the behavior of humans and other animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex elicited by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that indivi ...
, describes an example, quoted in many books in
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
, of
conditioned fear of a
goldfish
The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of the order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the w ...
in an
infant
In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to juveniles of ...
and a way of
unconditioning of the fear by what is now called
graduated exposure therapy
Systematic desensitization, (relaxation training paired with graded exposure therapy), is a behavior therapy developed by the psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe. It is used when a phobia or anxiety disorder is maintained by classical conditioning. It shares ...
:
In contrast,
radical exposure therapy was used successfully to cure a man with a "life affecting" fish phobia on the 2007 documentary series, ''
The Panic Room
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' ...
''.
[Tryst Williams. Man cured of 'life affecting' fish phobia. ''Western Mail'', 18 April 2007]
Cultural phenomenon
Historically, the
Navajo people
The Navajo or Diné are an Native Americans in the United States, Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Navajo language, Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language.
The states with the largest Din ...
were described as being ichthyophobic,
Washington Matthews
Washington Matthews (June 17, 1843 – March 2, 1905) was an Irish-born American surgeon in the United States Army, ethnographer, and linguist known for his studies of Native American peoples, especially the Navajo.
Early life and education ...
. Ichthyophobia, ''The Journal of American Folklore'', Vol. 11, No. 41 (1898), pp. 105-112[William H. Lyon. The Navajos in the American Historical Imagination, 1868-1900, ''Ethnohistory'', Vol. 45, No. 2 (1998), pp. 237-275] due to their aversion to fish. However, this was later recognised as a
cultural
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
or
mythic aversion to aquatic animals,
[Howard M. Bahr. ''The Navajo as Seen by the Franciscans, 1898-1921: A Sourcebook''. Scarecrow Press, 2004, ] and not a psychological condition.
Fear of eating fish
The ''
Journal of the American Medical Association
''JAMA'' (''The Journal of the American Medical Association'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. It publishes original research, reviews, and editorials covering all aspects of ...
'' have published a
research paper addressing the fears of eating fish
"Time-Tested Guidelines for Eating Seafood"
, a presentation by Jane Brody
Jane Ellen Brody (born May 19, 1941) is an American journalist/food writer principally covering science and nutrition. She wrote for ''The New York Times'' as its weekly "Personal Health" columnist from 1976 to 2022. Her column was syndicated natio ...
(Personal Health Columnist, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'') at the 2005 Seafood & Health Conference, where she coined her own term for fear of fish: ''pescaphobia'', from Latin for "fish" among those who are concerned about contaminant
Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that renders something unsuitable, unfit or harmful for the physical body, natural environment, wiktionary:Workplace, workplace, etc.
Types of contamina ...
s, such as mercury, becoming accumulated in their food.
See also
*List of phobias
The English suffixes -phobia, -phobic, -phobe (from Greek φόβος ''phobos'', "fear") occur in technical usage in psychiatry to construct words that describe irrational, abnormal, unwarranted, persistent, or disabling fear as a mental di ...
References
{{diversity of fish, state=collapsed
Zoophobias
Fish and humans