KORO!

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Why hasn't DM told us about this delight from the East?

Koro Syndrome is mostly found in China, Japan, and India. It's the obsessive fear that the genitals are shrinking, or retracting into the body, and that when they finally do disappear, you will die. How does a doctor even begin to treat such a syndrome? Take a look at a very strange, and specific, delusion.

Koro goes by many names because it spans several cultures with different languages. It's thought that the term "koro" comes from Malay, and refers to a turtle's head as it retreats into the shell. Considering that koro syndrome is the belief that the genitals — usually the penis but in women's case, the nipples — are retreating into the body, the metaphor is apt, but disturbingly vivid. Since it's purely a psychological disorder, the main dangers of koro are health problems caused by anxiety, and the occasional practice of either asking other people to take hold of the genitals and pull them back out, or trying to pull them back out of the body oneself.

Koro is mainly seen in young Asian men who are ignorant about physiological puberty and who have heard of the syndrome as an physical disorder, and not a psychological one. Occasionally there are parents who diagnose the fictitious disorder in their children, or spouses who see it in each other. As the fear mounts, sufferers become convinced that this is either an omen or a cause of their imminent death. Time doesn't always alleviate this disorder. One sufferer was 41 before he sought treatment specifically for koro, and had spent fifteen years tying a string around his penis and attaching the string to a hook above his bed at night in order to keep it from shrinking.

[cranefly]

I'm wondering if this feeds the tiger bone market and other virility recipes that are wiping out endangered species.

Someone should start teaching an internal style of sex where it's essential to retract the nipples, scrotum, penis and the big toe. You know, make it a positive.

[Drunk Monk]

I first heard of Koro as a culture-bound disorder in my Abnormal psych class in college. I just dug out my old text book, one of my few keepers, and it identifies it as being mostly in the Malay Archipelago. Note that I took the class in the early 80s and this is based on research from the last 60s and early 70s. Here's the blurb:

A fear reaction or anxiety state in which the person fears that his penis will withdraw into his abdomen and he will die. This reaction may appear after sexual overindulgence or excessive masturbation. The anxiety is typically very intense and of sudden onset. The condition is "treated" by having the penis held firmly by the patient or by family members or friends. Often the penis is clamped in a wooden box.