Sohan had been avoiding his uncles for ages. When he met them, he hardly spoke to them. Later his younger sister came to know that the uncles reminded Sohan of their father, who had once beaten him blue and black for getting poor marks in his examinations when he was just a little boy.

Rohini was afraid of things related to space and even the mention of extra-terrestrial creatures was enough to make her sweat profusely.

Anirban became violent when he came across any bearded person after the attack on the World Trade Centre, he happened to be in the States then, working towards his degree in business administration.

All the above cases are of people suffering from xenophobia, the fear of strangers. It could be said to be an irrational fear of anything foreign resulting in avoidance.

In Sohan?s case, he avoided his uncles, as they constantly reminded him of the beatings, which he had to face during his childhood. While Rohini had a phobia for strangers from different countries, Anirban avoided them as he took them for people representing Osama bin Laden, the prime accused behind the massive destruction caused to the United States of America on September 11, 2001.

Xenophobia is derived from the two Greek words, xenos and phobos. Xenos meaning alien, stranger and phobia meaning dread or irrational fear.

It must, however, be remembered that symptoms of xenophobia can only be seen if the person is exposed to the situation which initiates dread. At other times, the person is perfectly healthy and leads an absolutely normal life.

There are basically two primary causes of xenophobia. The first is genetic. The second may be neurochemical, where it is believed that the imbalance of certain neuro-hormones ? specifically adrenaline and serotonine ? result in anxiety, which is the chief symptom of this particular type of phobia.

The behaviourists, however, associate it with the learning theory, where the anomaly can be said to be the result of some kind of trauma in the person?s life during the cognitive phase of development.

The brain tends to repress the incident and upon being faced with similar situations in future, the brain cells are activated, triggering a response of panic and anxiety.

Fear for any specific thing or person can take concrete shape and the person can suffer from xenophobia. The object of phobia is often the cultural fear, which gets associated with it.

The symptoms, however, are only exhibited when the person is exposed to the particular situation, thing or person, which acts as the stimuli causing a sudden shoot in the level of adrenaline in the body. The person starts showing some nervousness.

The chief symptoms are those of anxiety, breathlessness, burning sensation in the hands and sometimes even an itching sensation, but the best indicator is avoidance.

Often, we find conservative Indians faced with cultural xenophobia when they visit foreign lands.

?The frequency of xenophobia is relatively low in our country but in places where there is a strong cultural divide, the percentage is quite high. In specific areas of Australia, they bear antipathy towards a particular sect and turn hostile to it. History has many instances where this hostility has often resulted in violent protests with dire consequences,? said Ashok Patnaik, head of the psychiatry department of the Telco hospital.

Treatment of xenophobia can basically be carried out on two lines. The first involves drug therapy and the behavioural approach to treatment. Medicines include selective seroton in noradrenergic reuptake inhibitor (SSNRI) group of drugs and the behavioural approach of treatment.

The behavioural approach of treatment incorporates delving deep into the problem and trying to help the person by solving the problem from the root itself. It can either be done by de-conditioning the person through flooding, in which the person is directly exposed to the situation. Direct exposure to the stimuli will cause a spontaneous response of avoidance and eventually acceptance.

Desensitisation is another approach where the person is gradually weaned from avoiding the particular stimuli in stages. This method is time consuming and the treatment has to continue till the phobia disappears.

Yet another method could be the psychodynamic approach, which takes into account the cause and effect relation and the situation is handled by going into the roots.

There are also a few relaxation procedures, which are done by trained clinical psychologists.

?Though xenophobia can be primarily termed as a cultural phobia, there are cases when the problem acquires a larger dimension and the concerned person can evoke violent reactions. In the worst case, xenophobia can result in genocide where natives drive a particular sect facing hostility away from the country,? added Patnaik.

Saswati Mukherjee