Pop-up Phobia!
Jun 11th, 2013 by adharris
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.
Coulrophobia, dentophobia, acrophobia, necrophobia.
Remember those pop-up books from your childhood? This one is infinitely more terrifying if you have a fear of clowns, dentists, heights, or even a fear of death. This clever book, The pop-up book of phobias, was created and written by Gary Greenberg who uses pop-ups to bring the reader into the mind of someone who faces these phobias. Each page contains a specific phobia with a brief definition and accompanying pop-up, as if the reader were experiencing the fear themselves. Watch the pop-ups in action!
Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder. When one is faced with their particular fear they may experience panic, a rapid hearbeat, shortness of breath, trembling, and an acute desire to get away. It is possible to develop a phobia of almost anything. Have you ever heard of Alektorophoiba? It is a fear of chickens. Or Omphalophobia? It is a fear of belly buttons. Pupaphobia? It’s a fear of puppets. Some speculate that certain phobias can be explained through evolution. For instance a fear of spiders or snakes could be a result of a time when man faced these very real mortal dangers out in the wild, and those that were cautious lived longer. Or agoraphobia, fear of wide open spaces, may be the evolutionary result of the danger of being exposed in open spaces and those that avoided them lived to see another day.
To explore more about these phobias look at The pop-up book of phobias / created + written by Gary Greenberg ; illustrated by Balvis Rubess ; pop-ups by Matthew Reinhart ; produced by Melcher Media. RC535 .G74 1999.
Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager for contributing this post.