Word: decidophobia
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...decidophobia: ... making decisions defecaloesiophobia: ... painful bowel movements deipnophobia: ... dining dementophobia: ... insanity demonophobia: ... demons dendrophobia: ... trees dentophobia: ... dentists dermatophobia: ... skin lesions didaskaleinophobia: ... school dikephobia: ... justice dinophobia: ... dizziness diplophobia: ... double vision dipsophobia: ... drinking dishabiliophobia: ... undressing in front of someone domatophobia: ... houses doraphobia: ... animal fur or skins dromophobia: ... crossing streets dysmorphophobia: ... deformity dystychiphobia: ... accidents...
...example, only a few victims of erythrophobia (the fear of blushing) and fewer yet of melissophobia (fear of bees) or panto-phobia (fear of everything). But Princeton University Philosopher Walter Kaufmann says that there is one age-old but hitherto unrecognized fear that is nearly universal. It is "decidophobia" -the morbid dread of making fateful decisions...
...forthcoming book Beyond Guilt and Justice, to be published next winter, Kaufmann states that contemporary man has succumbed to decidophobia and in the process limited his freedom to mold his character and shape his future. The decidophobe often restricts himself, Kaufmann says, by making one of ten major choices that automatically eliminates the need for many future decisions...
Sometimes, decidophobia results in making no moves at all, and that is a strategy in itself. Kaufmann calls it drifting, and says it comes in two forms. One is the "status quoism" common to over-30 conservatives who cling to ancient decisions; the other is the "inauthenticity" of rebellious young people who scorn all traditions, have "no ties, no code, no major purpose," and rarely know in advance what they will do next...
...treat his own conclusions as authoritative; he chooses with open eyes and then keeps his eyes open," admitting, if necessary, "that he may have been wrong even about matters of the greatest importance." Easier said than done; as Kaufmann admits, it is hard to find people who have mastered decidophobia. In the ancient world, he says, Socrates did so; among contemporaries, he cites the Russian novelist Solzhenitsyn...
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