This widely-quoted blog post from OkTrends claims Freud coined the term “schwanzangst” (roughly, “fear of penises”) to describe irrational homophobic fears.
Sharp-eyed MadeByMark reader Steve left a comment tonight noting that his Google searches had found virtually no reference to the term, save its appearance in dozens of citations of Rudder’s blog post.
Prompted by Steve, I downloaded the complete works of Freud and performed an exhaustive search for the term which, of course, never appears in any text Freud published.
I think writer Christian Rudder is pulling our leg a bit … and I’m calling shenanigans!
(Thanks, Steve.)
The literal translation of schwanzangst from the original German is "fear of tail." Perhaps our leg is being pulled.
actually, schwanz is German slang for the "member", so it would make sense 🙂 though schwanzangst is not officially a word…yet