Josh villianising the Stranger in Rush of Blood is so interesting because like. Yeah it could easily fall under Josh's seeming wariness and outright fear of other guys (which based off the fact the only enemies based off actual characters are all the male ones) but I think it probably goes farther than just that considering that the final boss Josh fights has the Stranger's face. If it was based off of what he fears or hates the MOST, it'd have likely been himself in the form of the killer. Instead it's just some guy he doesn't know aside from being a dead body in the mines with him.
It makes me think that actually, Josh wasn't necessarily any more afraid of this guy than any of the others, but was instead villianising this random man as a coping mechanism as he began to realise what he would have to do to survive.
It's a slight progression, too. Josh starts off by making the Stranger a therapist (something he clearly felt a bit sensitive about and maybe a little intimated by, especially after his hallucinations of Dr. Hill) as well as making up the whole character of the Circus Ringleader in this whole 'freakshow' of a situation he's conjured in his mind. (a place that reflects how he feared being percieved by others, he clearly thought quite poorly of his own mental state). As well as all that, he gave the Stranger the same treatment as some of his friends, percieving him as a more obvious threat to his life throughout the whole game. And it'd appear that when these things don't work, he literally makes the Devil out of this guy in a last ditch effort to make what he HAS to do at all easier.
So long story short I don't think Josh particularly disliked or feared the Stranger specifically, and that his consistent villianisation of him was to try to absolve the guilt that would come with eating him.
