Submitted by Paranorman on
Coulrophobia is defined as an abnormal fear of clowns. The term appeared in the mid 1980's, and is believed to originate from the Greek term for stilt walkers, and, of course, phobia - meaning fear or anxiety.
It is thought the fear itself comes from a revulsion of things similar to human form, yet exaggerated, or not perfect. Plus, clowns are just damned creepy...
Fear of Clowns
The fear of clowns, although possibly quite old, only had the term “Coulrophobia” established as late as the mid 1980's. In Ancient Greece clowns were not a prevalent figure, however the culture did celebrate stilt walkers as figures of fun, and as with most 'phobias', prefixes coming from the Greek language, it is assumed stilt walkers were the closest thing to clowns ancient times saw, so this is how the term was coined.
As for the fear itself… It is thought that a person’s revulsion of a clown comes along the same path as a person’s revulsion of humanoid robots, humanoid aliens or even such things as corpses and zombies. It is the differences between a perfect human form, as perceived by the observer, and the exaggerations or disfigurements that cause this revulsion. A clown, being somewhat a caricature of a person, although highly exaggerated or disfigured, can cause an antipathy towards it, and this antipathy can, in turn, grow to anxiety and fear.
Also, clowns can be plain evil looking, and many horror movies may have something to do with it... If you have a fear of clowns maybe give these films a miss:
- IT
- Poltergeist
- Killer Clowns from Outer Space
- House of 1,000 Corpses
- Dead Clowns
- Gacy
- Stitches
http://www.theparanormalguide.com/blog/coulrophobia-fear-of-clowns