Ablutophobia

The fear of washing and or bathing.

Not to be confused with a fear of being clean - this is a fear of the process by which one becomes clean.

The sad truth about this condition is that, up until recently in many countries, this was not a recognized phobia.  The poor souls stricken with this illness faced a very nasty future.  If you can imagine - think about this:

You are all alone, the damp and mist swirls around you.  Somewhere in the night you can hear the large guns firing.  You are less than half an hour from a large city.  You press on because the fifth Panzer division is closing in on you.  You don't even know the name of the city that temporarily lights up under the gun fire.  All you know is that you must hand yourself in to the soldiers of Nazi Germany who have a reward for your death.  you know you have no choice.  The fear grips your mind as you drag yourself ever closer to this city where they will do unspeakable things to you in the name of justice.  No one will know or care.  They might never even realize they're hurting you...

Bad situation.  For the sufferer of Ablutophobia this entirely fails to get to the nub of it.  It is hard to describe the terror that must have been endured by those poor unfortunate suffers who were held to be nothing more than dirty stop-outs - "A good bath'll fix 'em".

At one time an ablutophobic would have experienced similar terror.  Why?  Because society around about was so uncaring of the disorder that affected him/her as to only say "You stinkin', unwashed freak - F**k off".  All this because those who know didn't.

Extra note: this has nothing to do with aboulia which In psychology is the loss of will.

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