Pseudophobia

A pseudophobia is a purported irrational aversion or fear whose existence is as yet unproven; examples include schoolphobia and separation anxiety, and the term has also been applied to first-time fathers and mothers who have an exaggerated fear of hurting their own infant child due to an exaggerated perception of the child's fragility. John Bowlby described the agoraphobic condition as a pseudophobia, arguing that its features may in actuality encompass a reaction to a lack of a secure refuge or other underlying pathological processes, with an origin that typically derives from a dreaded memory.