If you’ve been keeping up with Celebrity Psychings over the past few days, you know I’ve been on a bit of a Harry Potter kick.

Specifically, I’ve launched into a series about the kinds of life lessons Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince can teach viewers (and readers) of all ages.

(If you need to catch up, check out Lesson #1: Laugh!, Lesson #2: Avoid Unhealthy Relationships, and Lesson #3: Pursue Your Dreams.)

In keeping with the Harry Potter theme we’ve had here at Celebrity Psychings, I thought I’d pass along this little tidbit, courtesy of omg! News on Yahoo!

Daniel Radcliffe, a.k.a. Harry Potter, a.k.a. The Boy Who Lived, a.k.a. The Chosen One, apparently has a clown phobia:

Daniel Radcliffe: Afraid of Clowns

You’d think a guy who’s gone head-to-head with Dementors and He Who Shall Not Be Named wouldn’t be afraid of anything anymore. But Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the world’s most powerful wizard, has a fear of clowns.

Of course, Radcliffe seems to be in good company. Yahoo! goes on to say “he’s not the only famous coulrophobic star: Johnny Depp and P. Diddy dread the circus entertainers, too.”

I’ve always been somewhat amused by the fear of clowns; not in a mean way, mind you (I realize phobias can be quite debilitating and wreak serious havoc on a person’s normal day-to-day activities), but more in a curious way. Clowns are supposed to bring joy and happiness and humor to people, so when I hear about folks who are afraid of them, I can’t help but take note of the irony.

I did some light research related to coulrophobia (and I do mean light – there seems to be very little good, solid information about it online), and found that people who develop fears of clowns seem to do so for the same reasons people develop fears of anything else, such as having bad experiences with them, making negative associations, etc.

I can see that. I can understand little kids getting freaked out by funny-looking adults with faces covered it paint and carrying that fear into adulthood. I can even see adults developing couldrophobia thanks to all the paint that creates the weird, unchanging “happy” expressions on clowns’ faces and hides what’s really back there…

Too, these are definitely the kinds of reasons I think brought on my phobia of spiders and flying and planes in general (the bad experiences and negative associations), but I don’t know that they really explain my phobias of large machinery and of pretty much anything related to plumbing (those last two of which I’m sure manage to cock a few eyebrows, too ).

If you want to learn more about phobias in general, including panic attacks, check out the following Psych Central pages:

• Facts About Phobias
• Specific or Simple Phobia, Specific Phobias, and Anxiety Specific Phobias
• Overcoming Fears, Phobias and Panic Attacks, Treatment of Phobias, and Relaxation Helps Ease Fears and Phobias.

My phobias of spiders and flying are pretty common; the large machinery and plumbing, not so much. Do you have any phobias others might find odd? How have they affected your life? Have you tried to overcome them, or, what do you do to avoid the objects of your phobias altogether?

Image Source: Wikipedia

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    Last reviewed: 7 Aug 2011