2024-10-15 14:50:00
“I have a big red nose, two lines under my eyes, a hat that moves, a mischievous look… who am I? “. You guessed it: the clown. Supposed to make children laugh with its goofy demeanor and its funny jokes, it nevertheless provokes a reaction of fear when the context is changed. Some people suffer from uncontrolled fear (even if it is not a scientifically recognized phobia) as soon as they see one of these characters.
Definition: what is clown phobia called?
Clown phobia has the scientific name la coulrophobie – the prefix “coulro” coming from ancient Greek, designating an acrobat on stilts.
Faced with the evocation or vision of a clown, some people are taken aback of uncontrolled fear, which can result in many physical and emotional symptoms such as screaming, crying, discomfort, excessive sweating, difficulty breathing, increased heart rate, panic attack, etc.
Why are people afraid of clowns? What explanations?
The multiplicity of aspects of the clown can be disturbing for children or sensitive people. He can alternatively:
put on the mask of the funny character with a comic function (circus);play spleen when it represents a clown triste ;arouse fear under the guise of a evil clown ;express madness.
The malevolent clown would actually be an exaggeration of everyone’s story. A person wearing makeup can frighten children or vulnerable people because the mask awakens in the average individual their own history, their own desires, their own fantasies, their own aggressiveness. Dr Fernando De Amorim, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst in Paris.
Indeed, “ frightened people do not want to recognize in themselves all these psychic elements exposed in the raw state in the clown », specifies the psychoanalyst. This is what scares them the most.
Another cause of coulrophobia: the “disturbing valley” theory
The “disturbing valley” is a phenomenon theorized by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970, according to which a slightly distorted human appearance would be very disturbing. And with his white face, his half-moon mouth and his multicolored outfit, the clown looks like a human, but deformed.
This would be a fundamental reflex, explains the magazine The Guardian in an article from October 2016 (source 1), which draws its source from the fear of death and corpsesbecause a dead face looks like a normal face, but a little distorted. This reflex would serve to keep us away from it to avoid illness.
Human beings are also sensitive to how a body is formed and how it moves. A clown therefore has a “suspicious” gait and a rather curious shape. Enough to awaken all our subconscious warning signals, especially in children. And since phobias tend to be transmitted from one generation to another, we risk seeing many more characters with red noses come to haunt our screens and our nights.
Scary clown: from the book and film “It” to Art the clown from “Terrifier 3”
The evil clown has made himself known in popular culture through literature, cinema, series and even fantasy video games. Many characters from films, series and books have ridden this wave of killer or evil clowns. Latest: film “Terrifier 3” released in French theaters in October 2024, the main character of this horror franchise being Art le clown.
Small non-exhaustive catalog…
The cartoon of Batman features the character of the Joker; book by Stephen King (1986) brings to life a murderous, child-killing clown; a book that inspired the film “It”, released in theaters in 2017, The main characters of the film the Stanley Kubrick A Clockwork Orange (1971, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess) are led in a scene to disguise themselves in a clownish manner; 4e saison d’American horror story features Twisty, a clown so terrible that the Clowns of America International association protested;The “Terrifier” horror franchiseThe hoaxes of Italian society DmPranksProductions show actors disguised as clowns committing fake bloody crimes under the frightened gaze of passers-by…
The aggressive clown: when the news covers the evil clown
For several weeks in 2014, fake clowns called “creepy clowns” by the press caused panic in France. Since then, the trend for “attacking clowns” has regularly returned to social networks. Some people don the clown costume for “jokes” in bad taste. A phenomenon from the United States.
If the clown scares some people, others seize his image to exorcise their own frustrations, to satisfy certain fantasies and to release the most primal impulses. As evidenced by the fear sown by young people who dress up as scary clowns. Dr. Fernando De Amorim.
What should you do if you come across an aggressive person dressed as a clown?
The national police invite you to dial 17 or 112 to report the presence of a malicious clown. Law enforcement officials point out that most reports of aggressive clowns are essentially attempts to scare passers-by.
How to treat coulrophobia? What are the treatments?
To overcome their phobia of clowns, coulrophobes are advised to regularly watch films with “evil” clowns for about 5 to 10 minutes. The objective is to gradually get used to the vision of clowns and to uncondition.
Like other phobias, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)can be effective in getting rid of fear. The goal: to confront the person with the object of their fear, by constructing a strategy adapted to the patient and by carrying out practical exercises based on their behavior and reactions.
In the case of coulrophobia, the goal is to become familiar with the figure of the clown and all the symbols that surround it, regularly looking at images of a clown, a circus, a masked birthday party, etc.
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