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This post is the transcript of Professor Stephens\u2019 presentation at the STOICON 2017 conference.\u00a0 A videorecording of the talk will be available in the coming weeks.<\/em><\/p>\n My topic today is fear.\u00a0 My talk divides into four sections.\u00a0 First, I will present an enormous catalogue of phobias and then interpret them from a Stoic\u2019s perspective.\u00a0 Second, I will report on the leading causes of death both in the United States and in the world.\u00a0 Those statistics will allow me to compare the number of deaths due to acts of terrorism since 2001 in the third section.\u00a0 This comparison, I will argue, sheds light on today\u2019s political rhetoric about terrorism.\u00a0 I will conclude by explaining how the Stoics use reason to replace fear with the healthy psychological state called caution.\u00a0 My goal is to show how Stoic thinking can help us strive to achieve fearlessness in our lives.<\/p>\n How many different fears have been named in English?\u00a0 The online phobia list names more than 530.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Relatively common disorders include fears of the dark, high places, air travel, open places, enclosed spaces, crowds, crossing bridges, darkness, public speaking, fire, needles, thunder, speed, and foreigners.\u00a0 Rarer objects of fear include bald people, bicycles, children, computers, dirt, heaven, light, long words, new things, old people, paper, string, teenagers, and being at home.\u00a0 Insects, insect stings, ants, bees, cockroaches, lice, mites, moths, spiders, tapeworms, wasps, worms, microbes, parasites, and germs all have named fears.\u00a0 So do bulls, horses, dogs, cats, mice, birds, bats, otters, fish, shellfish, frogs, toads, snakes, and sharks.\u00a0 The fear of animals is zoophobia. \u00a0People with paraskavedekatriaphobia fear Friday the 13th<\/sup>.\u00a0 There are names for the fears of such activities as opening one\u2019s eyes, defecating, bathing, drinking, undressing in front of someone, coitus, crossing the street, going to school, throwing things away, dancing, conversing over dinner, riding in an automobile, being stared at, sitting, walking, being tickled, stooping, stuttering, seeing oneself in a mirror, vomiting, and going to bed.\u00a0 There are named fears of eyes, hands, chins, beards, belly buttons, knees, hair, rectums, and genitals.\u00a0 There are names for the fear of each of the colors yellow, red, purple, black, and white, as well as for the fear of colors generally.\u00a0 There are names for the fear of each of the numbers 4, 5, 8, 13, and 666.<\/p>\n Whether a fear of illness, accidents, injury, fever, heart disease, diabetes, dentists, speed, or pain seems more or less justifiable will vary from person to person.\u00a0 Bad experiences in childhood no doubt have a lot to do with phobias.\u00a0 So do genetic predispositions.\u00a0 But what about fearing fog, ghosts, or being alone?\u00a0 Or fearing clouds, clothing, or nudity?\u00a0 Or the fear of blushing, trees, or clowns?\u00a0 Or the fear of puppets, body odor, or wealth?\u00a0 What of the fear of dolls, growing bald, or the moon?\u00a0 Or the fear of clocks or stars or books?\u00a0 Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. \u00a0Could one reasonably justify even moderate worry about these things?\u00a0 To fear beautiful women is to suffer from caligynephobia.\u00a0 The fear of hearing good news is termed euphobia.\u00a0 Geliophobes fear laughter.\u00a0 Hedonophobes fear feeling pleasure.\u00a0 Ideophobes fear ideas.\u00a0 Pantophobes fear everything.\u00a0 The fear of fear itself is phobophobia.<\/p>\n How common are phobias?\u00a0 According to the American Psychiatric Association, phobias are the most common psychiatric illness among women and the second most common among men. The National Institute of Mental Health suggests that phobias affect approximately 19.2 million U.S. adults.\u00a0 These phobias typically emerge during childhood or adolescence and continue into adulthood.\u00a0 They also impact twice as many women as they do men.[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are a number of explanations for why phobias develop, including evolutionary and behavioral theories. \u00a0Phobias lead to marked fear and symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, and breathlessness. \u00a0In some cases, these symptoms escalate into a full-blown panic attack.<\/p>\n Which phobias are the most common?\u00a0 The top ten appear to be Arachnophobia (spiders and arachnids), Ophidiophobia (snakes), Acrophobia (heights), Aerophobia (flying), Cynophobia (dogs), Astraphobia (thunder and lightning), Trypanophobia (injections), Sociophobia (social situations), Agoraphobia (open or crowded spaces), and Mysophobia (germs or contamination).<\/p>\n One source reports that the fear of arachnids affects women four times more than it does men (48% women and 12% men).\u00a0 Another source reports that Arachnophobia affects as many as 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men.\u00a0 So why are so many people terrified of arachnids? \u00a0While there are an estimated 35,000 different spider species, only about a dozen pose any type of real threat to humans.\u00a0 A common explanation for this and similar animal phobias is that arachnids, insects, snakes, and similar creatures once posed a considerable threat to our ancestors who lacked the medical knowledge and technological tools to treat bites from animals and insects.\u00a0 Thus, evolution contributed to a predisposition to fear these animals and insects.<\/p>\n Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) is quite common.\u00a0 \u201cIn a study of 35 snake-fearful participants, however, researchers found that only three of these individuals had ever been bitten by a snake.\u00a0 The majority of the participants had little or no direct experiences with snakes in any capacity.\u00a0 Another theory suggests that the fear of snakes and similar animals might arise from an inherent fear of disease and contamination. \u00a0Studies have shown that these animals tend to provoke a disgust response, which might explain why snake phobias are so common yet people tend not to exhibit similar phobias of dangerous animals such as lions or bears.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n Acrophobia (the fear of heights) afflicts an estimated 23 million adults.\u00a0 Aerophobia (the fear of flying) affects an estimated 8 million U.S. adults despite the fact that airplane accidents are actually very uncommon. \u00a0About one out of every three people has some level of fear of flying. \u00a0Common symptoms associated with aerophobia include trembling, rapid heartbeat, and feeling disoriented.<\/p>\n Cynophobia (the fear of dogs) is often associated with specific personal experiences such as being bitten by a dog during childhood. \u00a0Such events can be quite traumatic and can lead to fear responses that last well into adulthood.\u00a0 Cynophobia can be quite common. \u00a0Some estimates suggest that as many as 36 percent of all individuals who seek treatment for a specific phobia have this severe fear of dogs.<\/p>\n Astraphobia (the fear thunder and lightning) is relatively common.\u00a0 Understandably, astraphobes also tend to develop an excessive preoccupation with tracking weather forecasts.\u00a0 In some instances, astraphobes may become agoraphobes when they are so afraid of encountering lightning or thunder that they are unable to leave their homes.<\/p>\n Trypanophobia (the fear of injections) is a condition that can sometimes cause people to avoid medical treatments and fear doctors (Iatrophobia). \u00a0Estimates suggest that as many as 10 percent of people in the U.S. are trypanophobic.\u00a0 Sociophobia (fear of social situations) often includes fear of being watched (Scopophobia) or humiliated in front of others.\u00a0 The most common form of Sociophobia is Glossophobia (fear of public speaking).<\/p>\n Agoraphobia involves a fear of being alone in a situation or place where escape may be difficult. \u00a0This type of phobia may include the fear of crowded areas or open spaces.\u00a0 Agoraphobia usually develops sometime between late-adolescence and mid-30s. The American Psychiatric Association reports that two-thirds of people with agoraphobia are women.<\/p>\n Mysophobia, or the excessive fear of germs and dirt, can lead people to engage in extreme cleaning, compulsive hand-washing,\u00a0and even avoidance of things or situations perceived as dirty. \u00a0In some instances, this phobia may be related to obsessive-compulsive disorder.<\/p>\n We might be tempted to think that our own phobias are reasonable, whereas the phobias of other people are kind of silly.\u00a0 This temptation to discount the seriousness of phobias that we don\u2019t share with others is probably stronger in the case of especially exotic phobias.\u00a0 But we should remember that phobias are serious problems for those afflicted by them.\u00a0 Phobias are debilitating and undermine our capacity to live our lives with a feeling of safety.<\/p>\n How did the Stoics conceive of phobias?\u00a0 First, the Stoics distinguished between the immediate involuntary physiological response to the appearance of an unwelcome thing and the voluntary, deliberate cognitive judgment that that unwelcome thing is dangerous and bad.\u00a0 The former the Stoics called propatheia<\/em>, \u201cpre-emotions\u201d or \u201cproto-passions.\u201d\u00a0 Examples include being startled and flinching when hearing a sudden loud and unexpected noise.\u00a0 Shivering when sprinkled with cold water, the feeling of disgust when touching something slimy, the feeling of vertigo caused by heights, hair bristling upon hearing bad news, and blushing at obscene language are other examples Seneca gives of pre-emotions.\u00a0 Since these physiological responses happen without our consent, we are not responsible for them, according to the Stoics.<\/p>\n But after these proto-passions occur, it is up to us whether we judge the presence of the unwelcome thing as bad.\u00a0 If we have a few moments to think about it, and then we voluntarily decide that the unwelcome thing is truly bad, then we experience real fear.\u00a0 But the Stoics insist that a real fear response is the result of a mental judgment we make consciously.\u00a0 We control our power of assent to the proposition, for example, that \u201cThis slimy thing is truly bad and truly scary.\u201d\u00a0 If we don\u2019t assent to this proposition, then we won\u2019t be afraid.\u00a0 Thus, the Stoics conceive of fear as the consequence of a voluntary cognitive act, not a brief, involuntary physiological reaction.<\/p>\n The most commonly used therapeutic treatment for phobias is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).\u00a0 Phobias can be minimized and even eliminated with CBT.\u00a0 The basic idea of CBT originated with the ancient Stoics.\u00a0 What did the ancient Stoics regard as the most popular and most troubling fear?\u00a0 Unsurprisingly, it is the fear death.\u00a0 Most people today, I expect, believe that the fear of death\u2014called thanatophobia\u2014is very reasonable and quite justified.\u00a0 So, let\u2019s now look at the top ten causes of death.<\/p>\n The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that in the U.S. in 2013, the leading causes of death were heart disease (611,105), cancer (584,881), chronic lower respiratory diseases (149,205), accidents, i.e. unintentional injuries (130,557), stroke (128,978), Alzheimer\u2019s disease (84,767), diabetes (75,578), influenza and pneumonia (56,979), and nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis (47,112).[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Suicides (41,149) outnumbered motor vehicle deaths (32,719),[5]<\/a> which outnumbered firearm homicides (11,208).[6]<\/a><\/p>\n Leading causes of death in the U.S. in 2013 \u2014 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/p>\nMyriad Phobias<\/h3>\n
The Top Ten Causes of Death<\/h3>\n
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