The Nature of Koro: A Culture-Bound Disorder

A detailed Summary of The Nature of Koro: A Culture-Bound Disorder

The Nature of Koro: A Culture-Bound Disorder

Culture-bound syndromes (CBSs) comprise a diverse set of illness phenomena that the DSM-IV defines as

recurrent, locality-specific patterns of aberrant behavior and troubling experience that may or may not be linked to a particular DSM-IV diagnostic category. Many of these patterns of behavior are indigenously considered to be 'illnesses', or at least afflictions, and most have local names.

Koro is one such culture-specific psychiatric disorder occurring primarily in southeast Asia whose main feature is acute anxiety attributed to the fear of genital retraction. People with Koro syndrome, usually men, believe that complete disappearance of the genital organ will result in death (Kovacs & Osvath, 1998). A typical episode will occur when a man goes to urinate in the cold or when emotionally upset (often due to guilt over masturbation or frequenting prostitutes, while concerned about his sexual performance, or after a fight with his wife). The individual may attempt to grasp his genitals in order to prevent them from retracting or use mechanical devices such as cords, chopsticks, clamps, or small weights. (Rosca-Rebaudengo et al, 1996). The cl

Sheung-Tak, C. (1996). A critical review of Chinese koro. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 20, 67-82.

Kovacs, A., & Osvath, P. (1998). Koro (genital retraction syndrome): A symptom or a disease? Psychiatria Danubina, 10, 45-51.

Bartholomew, R. E. (1998). The medicalization of exotic deviance: A sociological perspective on epidemic koro. Transcultural Psychiatry, 35, 5-38.

es for an alternative, nonpsychopathological explanation of Koro epidemics as a "collective misinterpretation" rather than a culture-bound syndrome. He describes the response as "a rational attempt at problem-solving that involves conformity dynamics, perceptual fallibility, and the local acceptance of Koro-associated folk realities", which he maintains is capable of explaining such episodes as normal. It is a situation where the catalyst is cultural mythology and the resulting episodes of Koro are due to "self-fulfilling perceptual sets." He offers a Western example of such a "collective illusionary misperception" with the famous Orson Welles live radio drama where many Americans panicked after listening to a realistic reenactment of a Martian landing in New Jersey and subsequently reported actual observations of Martians in the district.

Chowdhury, A. N. (1996). Koro: A state of sexual panic or altered physiology? Sexual and Marital Therapy, 11, 165-171.

Even though genital retraction syndrome, usually under the name Koro, is one of the most published of the culture-bound syndromes, there seems to be a great deal of cont

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