Isn't it still mysophobia, regardless of the cause? I mean I have a phobia of needles, but didn't mind them as a kid. It's not like you're born with phobias ^^'
A traumatic experience is usually what causes phobias... :)
I just checked the definition of mysophobia and it's a "pathological fear of contaminating germs" as in a fear of germs dirtying one self. Shirotani isn't afraid of germs he's afraid of his dirty "disgusting" self dirtying other people/things. That's why it's not truly mysophobia. But like I'd also like to point to that he never went to a doctor. He was never clinically diagnosed with mysophobia. He just assumed he had it since when he googled his problems the first thing that came up was mysophobia. And from personal experience just because skin from my breasts peel off sometimes doesn't mean I got breast cancer tho Google told me I did lol. ╮(￣▽￣)╭
Then it's automysophobia? That's an actual thing :L
Tbh I dun know what the kid has ┑(￣Д ￣)┍ and I'm not gunna stand here and try to diagnose him with something. I just know that he's scared with what happened wit his father. And so is koruse with wat happened with the mysophobic guy. So these are two broken bebis that need to heal eachother ლ(´ڡ`ლ)
Then why bother mentioning he's not mysophobic? It's a known thing that phobias are curable and caused by traumatic events aha. I'd be surprised if he had a phobia without any real cause.
Woah, u guys are smart (o_o) I wish I was ......°(ಗдಗ。)°.
Oh your right I'm sorry ⁄(⁄ ⁄·⁄ω⁄·⁄ ⁄)⁄ but it was like a sudden realization that's why I mentioned it. But you have a point he does have a phobia but I just wanted to call out that it might just not be mysophobia you know? But I could be wrong and could just be reading too much into this and the author confirms that he does have mysophobia. But I just believe that it's an assumption made by shirotani. There's too many subtle hints that points that this might just be a mis understanding.(￣∇￣")
His main symptom is still fear of germs. That's why he cannot drink out of a cup somebody else has touched (e.g at a coffee shop) and also why he disinfects his items after others have touched them. He himself wears gloves so he hasn't infected them. The underlying issue is a deep seated fear of dirtying others but he has a general fear of germs full stop.
I noticed this story takes what I consider a rather Freudian approach to the causes of phobias. You may be right that it is some other type of phobia--but because the "world rules" (if you will) posit the cause of the condition is tied to childhood attachment to his father and trauma from the bitch (sorry, I can't remember her name), it is difficult. Is a fear of germs symbolic for his feelings of being dirty? Probably. Is it germs he is afraid of? I think in part--at least in that they symbolize an external representation of his inner issues with feeling "disgusting". But I think you are correct that he is more afraid of getting others dirty with his bad self than he is of germs per se. Maybe this key insight will make a difference in his progress.
If you compare Shirotani to another fictional character such as Monk (the TV detective), their fear of germs and compulsion to clean has some similarities but has very different root causes and therefore, I would guess, different treatments. The fictional aspects complicate things though. :)
I just realized rereading this. Shirotani doesn't have mysophobia he's just traumatized by the words the girl told him as a kid. And the fear of not wanting to dirty his father (then professing to not wanting to dirty anything in general) caused me to have mysophobia like symptoms. So when shirotani searched up his conditions he read how ppl with mysophobia acted the same way he did so he Labeled himself with mysophobia. Damn this just blue my mind. I'm sorry for the poll that already knew I'm slow at catching on to theses things (￣∇￣")