Psychophobia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An intense, irrational fear of the mind, mental illness, or psychological processes, often accompanied by anxiety about one's own mental health or sanity
2. A pathological dread of mental illness, insanity, or the workings of the human mind that produces severe anxiety
3. An abnormal terror concerning psychological disorders, mental breakdown, or the functioning of one's own psyche

Etymology: "Psychophobia" is a modern compound built from two Greek-derived elements. "Psycho-" comes from Greek "psykhē," meaning breath, life, or soul, and in English it came to refer to the mind and mental processes. "-phobia" comes from Greek "phobos," meaning fear or dread. Joined together, the pieces describe a fear directed at the mind itself rather than at any external object or creature. The word follows the pattern of many other English fear-terms built with "-phobia," which were coined from Greek roots, often in scientific or clinical contexts, so that a fear could be named as precisely as a medical condition. Because the second element is attached to a general word for the mind, the term covers fear of mental illness, of psychological processes, and of one's own sanity, which is why the definition stresses anxiety about one's mental health.

Synonyms: fear of the mind, mental fear, psychological fear, anxiety disorder, phobia