panphobia

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." Pan is characterized as a human–animal hybrid who "appeared as the agent of panic fear (that collective, animal-like disorder that seizes military camps at rest, especially at night) and of a form of individual possession (panolepsy)." 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. It has been argued that pantophobia may actually be considered the more accurate name to describe the non-specificity associated with a fear of all.