Phobia keeps Nobel winner home

2004-10-07 18:11

Vienna - Nobel literature laureate Elfriede Jelinek said on Thursday that she would not be able to travel to Stockholm to receive her prize because she suffers from what she called a "social phobia."

The Austrian writer told AFP in a telephone interview from her home in Vienna that she had been suffering "for a long time" from a "social phobia, an illness known to doctors and which is the reason why I cannot go to Stockholm to receive the prize".

Jelinek said her publisher would go to Stockholm to pick up the prize for her and added that she was unable "to feel" anything about winning the prize.

She said earlier on Thursday that she did not think her winning the literature prize could be seen as a "feather in Austria's cap" but made it clear that her illness had "nothing to do with Austria or with politics".

"Anybody can have this disease.

"I feel empty," she noted. But she said she was able to write.

She said that for years she had been unable to "tolerate being in large groups" although "I can go into small rooms".

She said she was able to "travel to Munich to see my husband".

According to doctors, people who suffer from "social phobia" often have a fear of being humiliated in public.

They believe all eyes are fixed on them and that they may be seen as incompetent.

In some cases they are afraid of going out, and the prospect of speaking in public induces blushing, trembling and dizziness.

- AFP