Phobia Timeline - Timeline

The first written reference to phobic problems was made by Greek physician Hippocrates. He described a man who was afraid of flutes but only during the night. This would later be described as aulophobia.

A Roman doctor named Celsus diagnosed someone with hydrophobia or a fear of water. This was the first description of a fear using the word phobia.

The Oxford Dictionary defined phobias as "a fear of an imaginary evil, or an undue fear of a real one".

Sigmund Freud soeculated about how phobias developed.

Phobias became a separate diagnostic category in the International Classification of Diseases.

Phobias were split into three different categories: specific phobias, social phobias and agoraphobias.

A Byzantine Emperor name Heraclius had an intense fear of drowning (Thalassophobia).

Famous Roman leader Augustus Caesar suffered from a fear of lighting (astrophobia).

Genghis Khan suffered from a fear of dogs (cynophobia)

When he was young Winston Churchill had a fear of public speaking (glossophobia).

During the 1920's Franklin Roosevelt had a fear of fires (pyrophobia).

During the 1940's Adolf Hitler had dendrophobia or a fear of dentists. This led to him never going to a dentist and probably having nasty teeth.