Phobias -- Are They Reasonable?

If you look at a list of common phobias some will immediately strike you as, in fact, perfectly reasonable. For instance, even if you don't yourself have an irrational fear of spiders, it is not hard to understand how someone could; we are all a little leery around spiders, especially the biting ones. Just dial that up a little and you have a phobia.

Some phobias are clearly not so sensible. Let's do a survey:

• Phobias about unsympathetic animals: Lots of people fear snakes, spiders, or bees. Nobody really likes these animals, the claims of oddballs who don't know what a pet is notwithstanding. Animals that are basically little exoskeletal machines are intrinsically unsettling. Especially since they probably don't think and have sharp bits. Creepy. Conclusion: Reasonable.
  

• Phobias about sympathetic animals: A lot people are afraid of dogs or horses, and some people are even afraid of cats. I do not understand this. I know that dogs sometimes bite people, and cats sometimes scratch people but come on. It is very clear when a dog is interested in biting you. While being afraid of a dog who is running at you and snarling may be reasonable, being afraid of all dogs is not. A dog who is wagging his tail is harmless unless you are utterly stupid. Fear of cats is even worse. Is anybody actually afraid of cats? Why? Are there any cats in the world who are capable of harming someone who is not already rubbing their bellies? Conclusion: Unreasonable.

• Claustrophobia: I suppose I see how someone could be afraid of tight spaces. They're afraid that the walls will collapse in on them, right? But if it comes to that I'd be more afraid of a Gothic cathedral than an MRI machine. Or are they afraid that they'll run out of air? Does anybody run out of air except miners and austronauts? You hear claustrophobic fictional characters claiming that they can't breathe, but is that just a manifestation of their fear? I don't know. What do claustrophobes really fear? Conclusion: Semi-unreasonable.

• Agoraphobia: While I was researching this article (Gosh I like how that sounds) I learned that agoraphobia is the only phobia considered a medical problem. I guess that kind of takes it out of the question of whether it is reasonable or not, huh? But then again we are not dualists here, every phobia is a medical problem inasmuch as it is a problem. Okay. So what is agoraphobia? They say it is a fear of public spaces. Crowded public spaces, I guess. And it helps if they are confined spaces. So what's to fear? Anonymous stabbings? Humiliation in front of a crowd? Mob violence? Getting lost? The encyclopedia gives us no clue. I somehow doubt it is any of these things. Agoraphobia is definitely the archetypal Unreasonable fear.

• Fear of heights: I'm not sure about this one. On the one hand, it's obvious what can go wrong when you are high up. You might fall and break your bones. On the other hand, it's kind of silly to be afraid of heights when you can't possibly fall, for instance on the observation deck of a big building. That would lead me to say that the fear of heights was a little irrational, but then I got to thinking about vertigo, which is a brain problem that leads to disorientation in situations like these (not to be confused with those other kinds of vertigo). If what you are fearing when you are afraid of heights is these somatic effects, well you seem kind of sensible to me. Conclusion: Reasonable in some-to-most.

• Fear of social situations: Well it's hard to class all these together. Lots of people fear lots of different things about social gatherings. I guess the main thread in these fears is that other people will disapprove of you? Now this is something most people get a little nervous about. A major reason to interact with people is to make friends or win esteem, and in doing so we have to care what they think of us. Fearing that they will come to dislike or disapprove of us is entirely sensible. Of course social-anxiety types take it much too far, but the basic idea is perfectly comprehensible. Conclusion: Reasonable.

• Fear of needles. Oh come on. Needles hurt. They really hurt, if you get stuck in the right place. I don't think I have ever been stabbed with a needle when it didn't hurt (except that one time when I was having dental surgery and that might have been even worse). It's people who don't have this fear who are nuts.

• Fear of death. Is there anybody who in his heart of hearts is not afraid of death? Is there anybody who is afraid of death, per se, for a good reason? I guess hypocritical Christians might be afraid of death because death means Hell to them -- but aren't they really afraid of Hell (reasonable)? People who think of death as like blacking out, which I guess I do, have even less reason to be afraid. It's not like you'll even notice, after all. Fear of death is probably due to evolutionary psychology. It is a boffo thing to be afraid of if you are going to survive. And fears based in evolutionary psychology are seldom reasonable. And don't tell me that all fears are based on evolutionary psychology because we are evolved beings. You know what I mean.
  

Now that I come to think of this, having written it, maybe this is just an entirely subjective list of what I can imagine myself being afraid of. Maybe I shouldn't have written this one.