Spectrophobia (derived from Latin: spectrum, n. specio, an appearance, form, image of a thing; an apparition, spectre) or catoptrophobia (from Greek κάτοπτρον kátoptron, "mirror") is a kind of specific phobia involving an abnormal and persistent fear of mirrors, and an anxiety about seeing one's own face reflected in them.[1] It is sometimes related to the fear of ghosts or the undead.[citation needed]
This phobia is distinct from eisoptrophobia, which is the fear of one's own reflection. Sufferers of spectrophobia can fear the breaking of a mirror bringing extreme bad luck.[citation needed] They can fear the thought of something frightening jumping out of the mirror, or seeing something disturbing inside of it next to their own reflection when looking directly at it.[citation needed] Others fear that it is a link to the preternatural world or a gateway into another world, and may fear being pulled into the mirror by some preternatural force.[citation needed] Some also fear their own reflection in the darkness, as it can appear distorted in strange ways or their reflection may frighten them.
| This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Metasyntactic variable, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. |