thumb|A woman diagnosed with panphobia, from [[Alexander Morison's 1843 book The Physiognomy of Mental Diseases]]
Panphobia, omniphobia, pantophobia, or panophobia is a vague and persistent dread of some unknown evil. Panphobia is not registered as a type of phobia in medical references.
History
The term panphobia was coined by Théodule-Armand Ribot in his 1911 work The Psychology of the Emotions. He defined it as "a state in which a patient fears everything or nothing, where anxiety, instead of being riveted on one object, floats as in a dream, and only becomes fixed for an instant at a time, passing from one object to another, as circumstances may determine." The term comes from the Greek πᾶν - pan, neuter of "πᾶς" - pas, "all" and φόβος - phobos, "fear". The Greek root word pan (ex. pan-ic) describes "the unpleasant state inflicted by the intervention of the god Pan." According to Herodotus, it was Pan who was able to lead the Athenians to victory in the Battle of Marathon, forcing the Persians to flee. These persons differ from generalized anxiety sufferers in that they have "free-floating anxiety that rarely subsides" and are clinically diagnosable as having borderline personality disorder in the DSM-IV-TR. No significant changes related to this personality disorder were made in transitioning to the DSM-5, suggesting the diagnostic criteria are still appropriate.
See also
- A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2011 British film)
- Borderline personality disorder
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- List of phobias
- Paranoia
- Pseudoneurotic schizophrenia