April 19, 1813

Benjamin Rush (January 4, 1746 to April 19, 1813) was devoted to the cause of freedom for the American colonies. He signed the Declaration of Independence. He was a doctor in Washington's army, and later a professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a social reformer also; he worked for free schools, prison reform and the abolition of slavery. In 1812 his book Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind was published. This volume, written by the man later described as the father of American psychiatry, includes a section labeled "A Light Hearted Inventory of Phobias".

Rush wrote:

I shall define Phobia to be 'a fear of an imaginary evil or an undue fear of a real one'....
1. The CAT PHOBIA It will be unnecessary to mention instances of the prevalence of this distemper...2. The RAT PHOBIA is a more common disease than the first species that has been mentioned: It is peculiar in some measure to the female sex...

How interesting that cats were on the top of a list of imaginary fears in a newly liberated American society. What a clear and charming writer Benjamin Rush is. He was not afraid of a joke ruining his reputation for scholarly accomplishments. The fear of damaging his reputation is not on his list, but some other topics are and here are other things on Rush's list of unreasonable fears."

3. Insect
4. Odour, "A very frequent disease with all classes of people"
5. Dirt, "This disease is peculiar to certain ladies. They make everyone around them miserable with their excessive cleanliness".
6. Rum
7. Water
8. The Solo Phobia, "by which I mean the dread of solitude"
9. Power
10. Faction
11. Want
12. Doctor
13. Blood, "A native dread of the sight of blood in every creature implanted probably for the wise purpose of preventing our injuring or destroying ourselves or others."
14. Thunder
15. Home (as in men who want to be at the tavern more than home)
16. Church
17. Ghost, "This distemper is most common among servants and children."
18. Death "The fear of death is natural to man - but there are degrees of it which constitute a disease."

We quote above from Rush's list but we actually took these words and phrases from excerpts of his writings included in a modern tome: Book of the Mind: Key Writings on the Mind from Plato and the Buddha Through Shakespeare, Descartes, and Freud to the Latest Discoveries of Neuroscience, edited by a practising psychiatrist associated with Oxford University: Stephen Wilson (2003).