If you think you are suffering from a fear of palindromes, then you have aibohphobia. The technical term for fear of palindromes is aibohphobia but the reality is that there is no technical term for this condition. That is because there is no such condition. Fear of palindromes is not a real psychiatric or psychological condition. It is the creation of some smart and humorous minds.
Palindrome is defined as a word or phrase of words that can be pronounced in the same way whether you read it normally or you read it backwards. In other words, every character in the word or in the phrase of words will be the same, whether you read it from left to right or from right to left. Madam is a common example of a palindrome. If you notice, aibohphobia, the term for fear of palindromes is itself a palindrome.
Can anyone actually have a fear of palindromes? No. There cannot be a condition that instills fear of words that are very hard to make out in the first place if they are a palindrome or not. A simple sentence, ‘rise to vote sir’, would be read as it is, notwithstanding the fact that the phrase is a palindrome. Only meticulous eyes and very minutely monitoring minds will spot that the phrase is a palindrome. Even if you manage to notice it in this article, you would miss out on it had it been printed on a newspaper or just as a notice at the election booth. One may be afraid of public speaking, of long words or complicated sentence structures but palindrome is certainly not something to have a fear of.
Psychologists and linguists say that the fear of palindromes or the phobia and its subsequent naming as aibohphobia was done intentionally to shed light on the fact that many phobias actually don’t exist but are a state of mind. Some phobias are very real and quite dangerous but the humorous take on it is to the effect that people realize, phobias are not to be afraid of. They exist as a mere manifestation of some thought and that the phobias can be cured or got rid of.
The next time you think of being afraid of palindromes, try to think of a common word or phrase that is a palindrome and you will be just fine. If you have other phobias, ask yourself, are they real and if they can be overcome by your willpower.