Mechanophobia

Mechanophobia is a type of specific phobia involving the fear of machines or anything mechanical, frequently arising after a traumatic incident involving machinery such as a limb loss, with industrial machinery like shredders, grinders, chainsaws and overlockers considered particularly potent triggers because of their capacity to inflict serious injury. The condition emerged during the nineteenth century as a reaction to the effects of the Industrial Revolution; in a 1931 book, designer and artist John Vassos described mechanophobia as an affliction of the sexual incompetent or economic misfit who views machines as symbols of power or achievement, while a 1934 edition of the Science News Letter described it as a hatred of machines rooted in their replacement of human laborers in the workforce.