Does the name Pennywise tell you something? Maybe the chills, maybe some fear, maybe some hatred, or maybe nothing. Imagine that you are alone in your house, it’s getting dark, you can’t see really well. The door bell rings, you go downstairs very slowly, you open the door and… Pow! A big clown face greets you with an annoying/devilish laughter GUFFAW, GUFFAW, GUFFAW!!!Fear of clowns, together with fear of driving and fear of success, is one of the most known weird phobias and fears.
Fear of clowns, or its scientific name coulrophobia, is an extreme fear towards these hated creatures. It isn’t true what they say: clowns are not funny, cute or good-spirited creatures. Well, maybe they are, depending on who is or who is not afraid of clowns. There has always been ambivalence, since people have managed to label clowns into two types. The good, funny one with fear of driving and the evil, sinister one, that kidnaps people and puts them in the trunk of the car to eat them later. Fear of clowns could be toward both of them. However, weird phobias and fears tend to address the evil clown.
Fear of clowns is more common with children; say ages 2 to 7, nonetheless, it can also be found among teenagers and some adults. These weird phobias and fears are caused by two main reasons:
1) Children grow fear of clowns after experiencing a dramatic situation with a clown in person. It may have been at a neighbor’s party, or a cruel prank the child’s father made. This fear is usually carried to the child’s adult life. A similar situation happen with fear of driving, where a traumatic situation makes the brain to retain that episode.
2) After seeing a malefic portrayal of a clown in the movies, television or media in general.
A Social Phobia
There has been a tendency in popular culture to turn the clown persona upside down, providing it with traits of horror. Fear of clowns as part of the weird phobias and fears have been feeding of human terror since the 70′s. Weary Willie the clown created one of the first cases of multiple personality in the body of the Kelly’s dynasty, father and son. On decade later a whole lot of movies started to give a bigger stardom to these Machiavellian characters. Movies like ‘It’ and ‘Killer Klowns From Outer Space’ really created a culture of fear among youngsters. With other generations, evil clown costumes are very popular in Halloween celebrations, town festivals and parties all over.
All these weird phobias and fears, including fear of driving and fear of dentists are easy to treat. Medication and therapy are valuable options, but sometimes psychological assistance is not even necessary. These weird phobias make me think: There has to be something scary about a bunch of people coming out of a tiny car. That might even cause me a new fear of driving.
