Meta hutcheson Posted August 11, 2004 Meta Posted August 11, 2004 OK, if DSM-IV is not the preferred reference, then what is? Look, we aren't going to discuss one category name with you. We're going to ask how we can best come up with the most appropriate category names for these technical terms. If you propose a constructive procedure, that is something we can take back to our internal forums.
dfc Posted August 11, 2004 Author Posted August 11, 2004 As far as I'm aware, DSM-IV does not specifically list miscellaneous specific phobias, though I might be mistaken. Generally the psychiatric literature refers to it as "a specific phobia of going to the dentist" or "dental phobia" where the phobia is discussed in greater detail. I'm basing my suggestion primarily on scientific papers, which mostly refer to "dental phobia", especially in the main text (although "odontophobia" is often used as an additional search term). Also, it is much more widely used than either "dentophobia" or "odontophobia" by the general public. I have no objection to renaming phobias for the entire category to make dmoz more user-friendly (e. g. "fear of spiders", "fear of vomiting", "fear of the dentist and/or dental procedures" etc.). I suppose the main argument against this naming system would be that the names might become too long. But I can't see why "dentophobia" can't be changed to "dental phobia", considering that the category features "social phobia" as opposed to the archaic "sociophobia".
Meta hutcheson Posted August 11, 2004 Meta Posted August 11, 2004 That's OK. You really don't have to see it. And perhaps we should leave it at that.
Recommended Posts