Chapter 21 – Phobias
In the meantime at the hotel
When Louisa, James and Morwenna gathered in the hall of the hotel. Martin kissed his wife goodbye, stroke James' blond hair, nodded at Morwenna and headed towards the conference room to confirm his presence there.
'Good morning sir, what's you name please? I will look for your badge', a hostess said.
'Dr. Martin Ellingham'.
'Oh here it is.' The woman picked a badge from the table. Martin verified the badge and said
'No it isn't'.
The girl blushed and checked again. "Dr. Martinus Elzenbosch", the name card mentioned.
She looked again and picked up the right card.
'Sorry sir, it is rather confusing, there are quite a lot of persons with your first name subscribed to this seminar'. She handed him the badge and the folder with the documentation.
'Please find a seat sir, wherever you like to be seated.'
'Hmm', Martin replied, 'Thank you', he mumbled then.
He entered the conference room. It was rather early, so there were only a few persons present. Martin looked around the conference room, looking for a place where he could stretch his long legs every now and then. Usually he had to find a place at the end of a row, but much to his surprise, here the seats were well spread, so even the longest persons could be comfortably seated.
That's one of the advantages of this country, he thought, the average height of a Dutch male is a bit more than 6 feet.
Although he could seat himself anywhere, Martin chose to sit at the end of a row, somewhere in the middle. As he would need to sit down for a rather long time, he laid the documentation on the chair he had chosen and paced along the conference room for a moment.
He saw more and more persons entering the room. Mostly doctors, some students and some nurses as well. As their country hosted the conference, the majority of participants seemed to be Dutch. He recognized them by the casual clothing. Dutch people must think that going to a seminar or a training, was something like going on holidays – Most of them wore jeans, or cotton trousers and a pullover. To his judgement, most of them could use a haircut. He was happy to discover a few persons dressed in a suit and tie, just like him. Martin was not really surprised that they grouped all together in the same corner of the conference room. A curious phenomenon, that human beings clot together with persons they think are much like themselves, Martin thought.
So when the conference started, he found himself next to a person dressed like himself in a tailor made dark blue suit, immaculate white shirt and a brightly coloured tie.
'Doctor Martinus Elzenbosch', previously head of the vascular department of the VU-medical Center, his neighbour said to introduce himself.
'Don't tell me you are GP of a small coastal village', Martin replied. 'Dr. Martin Ellingham, previously head of vascular at Royal Imperial, now GP of Portwenn in Cornwall.
'As a matter of fact, yes I am', Dr. Elzenbosch told him, 'GP of Wourkem, a small village on the banks of the river Merwede'.
Both men frowned and looked at each other, but as the conference was about to start, they had to postpone further exchanges.
Soon, the conference leader introduced himself. The first presentation was a rather general introduction, stating some conference rules and dressing the background and the objective of the conference.
'Some exercises* to start with', the conference leader announced, 'as a warming up. I'd like you to take a piece of paper and list as many phobias as you know', he said. Don't discuss with your neighbour, please. You only need to write down the phobia, without any explanation. You'll have five minutes for this exercise
Martin took his fountain pen from his breast pocket and started to write down the phobias he remembered, a random order.
Traumatophobia
Hylophobia
Harpaxophobia
Nomophobia
Osmophobia, olfactophobia
Demonophobia, daemonophobia
Thanatophobia
Phonophobia
Antlophobia
Chiroptophobia
Enochlophobia -
Anthophobia
Algophobia
Uranophobia, ouranophobia
Emetophobia
Ophthalmophobia
Pharmacophobia
Equinophobia, hippophobia
Cyanophobia
Necrophobia
Atychiphobia, kakorrhaphiophobia
Selachophobia
Monophobia
Halitophobia
Coimetrophobia
Lilapsophobia
Agoraphobia
Scriptophobia
Agrizoophobia
Pupaphobia
Chrysophobia
Cherophobia -
Mottephobia
Nosophobia
Aichmophobia
Trypophobia
Mysophobia
Nyctophobia
Chromophobia
Autophobia
Arachnophobia
Philophobia
'Time is up, ladies and gentlemen, please stop writing. Please rise your hand if you have found less than 10 different phobias?' Four or five persons rose their hands.
The conference leader continued: 'Between 10 and 20?' Most of the hands rose now.
'More than 30?' Only six persons rose their hands, amongst them were Martin and his neighbour.
'Easy', Martin's neighbour said
'Hmm, yes', Martin confirmed.
'Now, as the second part of the exercise I ask you to give your piece of paper to your neighbour, the one at your right. The persons that are seated at the end of a row, will get the one from the row in front of you. The assistants will come and bring it to you. I want you to give a definition of the phobias your neighbour defined. If the list is long, only use keywords. You can start now – I'll give you twenty minutes for this exercise'.
Martin received a piece of paper with a very short list on it. He addressed a word to his neighbour: Sorry colleague, I'm afraid I gave you some work'.
'No problem, I did the same. My neighbour seems to struggle with it'
In no time Martin was finished. He could fill in the answers easily.
Cibophobia, sitophobia aversion to food, synonymous to anorexia nervosa
Equinophobia, hippophobia fear of horses
Gerontophobia fear of growing old, or a hatred or fear of the elderly
Scriptophobia fear of writing in public or of trying to write
Aquaphobia fear of water. Distinct from hydrophobia, a scientific property that makes chemicals averse to interaction with water, as well as an archaic name for rabies
Phonophobia fear of loud sounds or voices
Chiroptophobia fear of bats
Agoraphobia fear of helplessness and of leaving safe places
Spectrophobia fear of mirrors
Zoophobia fear of animals
Anthophobia fear of flowers
All the participants were working hard filling in the lists of their neighbour. Martin was ready in a few minutes, so he tried to get a glimpse of what his Dutch colleague made of his list. He was surprised to see that he was getting along with it very well. When the twenty minutes were over, only two or three lines were still open.
'Now, hand the list back to its owner', the conference leader said. Martin looked at his neighbour's work:
Traumatophobia having an injury
Hylophobia ?
Harpaxophobia being robbed
Nomophobia being out of mobile phone contact
Osmophobia, olfactophobia odors
Demonophobia demons
Thanatophobia dying
Phonophobia loud sounds or voices
Antlophobia floods
Chiroptophobia bats
Enochlophobia - crowds
Anthophobia flowers
Algophobia pain
Uranophobia, ouranophobia Heaven
Emetophobia vomiting
Ophthalmophobia being stared at
Pharmacophobia medications
Equinophobia, hippophobia horses
Cyanophobia the color blue
Necrophobia death and/or the dead
Atychiphobia, failure
Selachophobia sharks
Monophobia being alone or isolated or of one's self
Halitophobia bad breath
Coimetrophobia ?
Lilapsophobia tornadoes or hurricanes
Agoraphobia helplessness and of leaving safe places
Scriptophobia writing in public or of trying to write
Agrizoophobia wild animals, a branch of zoophobia
Pupaphobia ?
Chrysophobia the colour orange
Cherophobia happiness
Mottephobia butterflies and/or moths
Nosophobia contracting a disease
Aichmophobia sharp or pointed objects (such as a needle or knife)
Trypophobia holes or textures with a pattern of holes
Mysophobia germs, contamination or dirt
Nyctophobia, = achluophobia, lygophobia, scotophobia darkness
Chromophobia, colors
Autophobia isolation
Arachnophobia spiders
Philophobia love
'I'm impressed Dr. Eikenbosch', Martin said to his neighbour.
'Actually t's another type of wood you should refer to' Martinus answered.
'I beg your pardon?'
Elzenbosch, Elmwood if you wish, not Eikenbosch, that would be Oakwood should you translate it'.
'Hmm, not good at names, bad habit to mix them all up'.
Martin was quite pleased with the fact that for once he was seated next to a person who met his level of knowledge. During the first lecture, they seemed to have the same type of remarks and questions. The subject didn't bring them much new views on the subject: an overview of most common phobias a GP could come across in his practice.
'I've seen them all in my practice, Martinus said.
'Yes, for a small town like Portwenn, a discordant number of phobias have been detected in my surgery as well'.
Soon enough, the lunch was announced. Martin and Martinus agreed on sitting at the same table. They were joined by some other, immaculately dressed doctors. They shook hands and exchanged names:
'Dr Martin Napoléon Le Foll , from France'
'Dr Martin Helling, I am German'
'Markos Staikos, I am from Greece'
'Mateo Sancristobal, Spain'
At each table, eight places were foreseen. Soon a young lady, likely a student, approached the table and politely asked if she could join them, as most of the chairs at the other tables were taken.
All men immediately stood up, and competed their gentlemen's behaviour. One pulled back her chair, another helped her store away her belongings. They all presented themselves.
'My name is Martine de Jager, Dutch, medical student, fourth year. I am about to start my internships'.
'That makes seven M's', Markos Staikos stated, four of you have a name finding its roots in the Greek God Mars, that's extraordinary'. All of them frowned, but admitted that he was right.
Another person approached the table.
He nodded to the other persons present. Then he said 'Hello Doc….tor Ellingham!'
To be continued - thank you for your support. I am not a doctor, so forgive me when the phobias listed above aren't genuine phobias.. It's the idea that counts (I hope).
)* I have never attended to a medical conference, but in other disciplines they sometimes do these kind of exercises – just to measure the level of knowledge of the participants