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Koumpounophobia: The Fear of Buttons
Koumpounophobia is the phobia of buttons. Usually, but not always, it is buttons on clothing. Most people suffering from this strange phobia may feel that they are alone, especially if they are teased by those who do not understand the fear or don't believe that they are telling the truth about fearing buttons. Those afraid of buttons tend to find that the plastic ones terrify them more than metal (such as ones on jeans) and that four-holed buttons induce more fear than just two. While it is not a well-known phobia, it is a fairly common fear, and those suffering from it are plagued daily.

Origin of Buttons
see also:Buttons

Through studying ancient cultures it has become apparent that buttons were not invented to be used to hold garments together as they are today, but rather as decorative objects and seals for clothing. Evidence of such usage of the objects have been found in the Indus Valley Civilization during its Kot Diji period (circa 2800-2600 BCE) as well as the Bronze Age sites in China (circa 2000-1500 BCE), and even in Ancient Rome.

The Indus Valley Civilization used buttons made of seashell, and the purpose of the buttons was for ornamentation. This was in the period of about 2000 BCE. The buttons were usually carved into geometric shapes and most had holes drilled into them in order to fashion them onto clothing.

Germany was where buttons were first seen as being used for holding garments together in the 13th century. The trend started spreading as tighter clothing began to be the style in 13th- and 14th-century Europe.

Causes of Koumpounophobia
A lot of the phobias have the same causes. Here is what some psychologists have to say on the causes of phobias in general:

Many psychologists believe that the cause of any phobia is a genetic predisposition as well as environmental and social causes. Some evidence that shows that phobias can be genetic is that some identical twins raised separately, and educated in different areas acquired the same type of phobia. It may also be that "humans are biologically prone to have certain fears of noxious animals or situations, such as rats, poisonous animals, animals with disgusting appearance, such as frogs, slugs or cockroaches, etc ." Even with these facts, phobias don't necessarily have to come from one's genes.

Another cause for such fears could be that for thousands of years ago they were crucial for the human race to survive. As they are not necessary in today's society, they just remain dormant in the brain, manifesting themselves at any moment.

Erin Gerseley says that phobias can be developed because "we associate danger with things and situations that we cannot prevent or control." Such uncontrollable situations include lightning strikes, dangerous animals, etc. Due to the lack of control over the situation, one wants to avoid it so that they don't risk embarrassing themselves in front of others, or get trapped and be unable to get out.

Traumatic events can also be the trigger for developing a specific phobias.

Koumpounophobia in the Media


Koumpounophobia has been a phobia that not much is known about, and seemingly uncommon. Neil Gaiman changed that when he wrote his book Coraline in January of 2002. The book consists of some of the characters having buttons sown in place of eyes. These characters try to get another character to sew buttons onto her eyes. Then with the making of the movie, Neil Gaiman created a video [|viedo]to promote it about Koumpounophobia, telling his viewers how terrible it must be for those suffering from the fear of buttons to live in a world where buttons are everywhere, and there is no way to escape them really.

Due to Gaiman writing Coraline and the creation of the movie from the book, Koumpounophobia has been more frequently talked about, and it has become apparent that more people have it than was thought before. People are more informed about the phobia, and can now understand that it is a real fear and that many people do suffer from it. Those suffering from it have now been able to realize that they are not alone.

Famous People and Koumpounophobia
An article in the The Wall Street Journal describes how Steve Jobs created Apple Inc.'s iPhone in order to open a "lucrative new market for Apple, but it also represents part of a long effort by Jobs to eliminate buttons ." The iPhone eliminated the common keypad, using instead a touch-sensitive screen. Jobs says that his reasoning behind this is that he views buttons as 'blemishes' that merely add complexity to electronics.

The first move that Jobs made in eliminating buttons on his products was to leave off the "up," "down," "right," and "left" keys that allow users to move the cursor around the computer screen of the keyboard of his original Macintosh.

The elevators in the Apple store in Tokyo is another example of Jobs not using buttons. The elevators don't have floor buttons, making it stop at each floor. This does not seem to bother the employees, though, as they get used to the continuous stopping.

When starting to make remotes for some of his products "Mr. Jobs mocked the complexity of traditional remote controls" and he went on to make one that contained just six buttons compared to the forty of an average remote.

There are many other facts about Jobs that point to him have Koumpounophobia, even if he never established it himself. He makes sure that all of his clothing has no buttons on it, and he continued to strive to make electronics that are free of them.