Puppets are often an element of our childhood and we may associate them with positive and entertaining memories. However, there are people who end up developing a fear of puppets and marionettes. Fear is a normal human response, but in cases where this response is disproportionate and limits us, we would be talking about phobias. There are many and varied phobias about things that we would not even believe. Among them, the phobia of puppets. If you want to continue learning about this phobia, be sure to read our Psychology-Online article: Fear of puppets or pupaphobia: symptoms, causes and treatment.
Fear of puppets: name
Fear is a basic and universal emotion of human beings. This emotion has an adaptive function, since it protects us from exposure to dangers and threats in the environment. All people are afraid at times and this fear is usually of different stimuli. For example, there are people who are afraid of puppets.
What is the fear of puppets called?
But what is the fear of puppets called? The fear of puppets is called pupaphobia. This word has its origin in Latin; pupa is a puppet and phobia is fear.
What is fear of puppets?
Pupaphobia is intense, persistent and unjustified fear to puppets and marionettes. Pupaphobia is a phobia that is part of automatonophobia, which is the fear of anything that falsely represents or symbolizes a sensitive being, such as the fear of statues. Within automatonophobia, the pupaphobia or fear of puppets, and pediophobia or fear of dolls. Therefore, pupaphobia is a specific phobia and belongs to the category of .
Fear of puppets: symptoms
The symptoms of pupaphobia are similar to other phobias in general, except that in this case the phobic or feared stimulus is puppets or marionettes. People with pupaphobia always have an intense fear of exposure to puppets or marionettes and actively try to avoid this exposure. The anxiety response is usually disproportionate and exaggerated, and the person can suffer. The symptoms of fear of puppets can be grouped as follows:
- Physical symptoms: symptoms of physiological activation such as sweating, nausea, tachycardia, dizziness, headache, stomach pain, etc. These symptoms appear when the person is exposed to puppets or thinks in advance about exposing themselves.
- Psychological symptoms: distorted and catastrophic thoughts regarding puppets, nightmares and feelings of helplessness, since the person is aware that the fear is irrational but is unable to control it. This helplessness can lead to…
- Behavioral symptoms: avoidance or escape behaviors when faced with puppets. Avoidance behaviors appear when the person resists exposure to the puppets, while escape behaviors appear when the person flees from the presence of puppets.
A similar fear could be the .
Fear of puppets: causes
Regarding the reason for pupaphobia, different possible causes have been identified that would explain this irrational fear of puppets:
- Trauma in childhood. Throughout childhood, we have different fears depending on our age. These fears are part of normal development in this life stage, they are called . However, childhood fears can become traumatic due to negative experiences. In childhood, having an unpleasant episode with a puppet in a performance or seeing a puppet represented in a terrifying way can trigger an excessive fear of puppets. Furthermore, at this age the imagination is greater, which contributes to the development of a phobia from a negative experience.
- Cultural origin: The rejection that exists in some cultures towards puppets or dolls in general, can favor and influence the appearance of this phobia in a person who lives in this environment.
- “Uncanny Valley” Theory by Masahiro Mori. Mori is a professor in the field of robotics who theorized in the 1970s that robots or dolls that come too close to the human form and the behaviors of human beings cause a response of rejection and even fear in human beings. Therefore, the origin of pupaphobia could be that puppets look like humans and this can be disturbing for some people.
- “The uncanny” or “The ominous” by Sigmund Freud. The famous psychoanalyst introduced the concepts of the sinister or the ominous in 1919. These concepts refer to the rejection that an inanimate object generates the more it resembles human beings and the person themselves, and can remind us of our mortality.
- Terrifying characterization of the puppets. Some puppets have been created and shown in entertainment media, such as film and literature, as evil and terrifying. This is why some people have developed a fear of puppets after seeing or reading about them.
Fear of puppets: treatment
The indicated treatment for pupaphobia is , which has high rates of effectiveness in specific phobias.
Techniques for treating fear of puppets
- Exposure technique. Treatment for fear of puppets is based on the exposure technique. With this technique, the person who suffers from the phobia develops, together with the specialized person, a hierarchy of fears, listing from least to greatest the situations that generate fear and anxiety regarding the puppets. Based on this hierarchy, the person begins to expose themselves and gradually face these situations with help. The objective is for the person to get used to the feared stimulus and lower their anxiety levels when exposed to it. Exposure to puppets can be done live, in reality, or in imagination, so through visualization the person imagines exposing themselves to the feared situations.
- Relaxation and breathing techniques. This treatment also includes training in relaxation and breathing techniques. These techniques allow greater control of anxiety throughout the psychological intervention. The most used techniques are diaphragmatic breathing and .
- Systematic desensitization. Other techniques used in the treatment of fear of puppets are . In this technique, the person undergoes training in relaxation techniques, develops a hierarchy of fears, performs the exposure in imagination and finally performs live exposure to the feared stimuli while using the relaxation and breathing techniques learned. In this way, the person is intended to reduce fear by generating incompatible responses, such as relaxation and breathing, when exposed to the feared stimulus.
- Cognitive restructuring. CBT also includes cognitive restructuring, since one of the symptoms of fear of puppets is about the feared stimuli. Through this technique, the person replaces the negative thoughts they have with more adaptive and realistic ones.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Fear of puppets or pupaphobia: symptoms, causes and treatmentwe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- American Psychiatric Association. (2014). dSM-5. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana, SA
- Ballion, T. (2012). Physiological Reactions To Uncanny Stimuli: Substantiation Of Self-assessment And Individual Perception. Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2182.
- Horse, VE (Ed.). (2008). Manual for the cognitive-behavioral treatment of psychological disorders (Vol. 2). Twenty-first century of Spain.