The definition and classification of Koro.

Attempts at defining and classifying Koro have been undertaken by various researchers over at least the last fifty years without any consensus emerging to date. The occurrence of Koro, not only in different parts of the world but also in association with varied morbidities, has of late diluted its primary identity as a culture-bound syndrome. Further, the DSM-IIIR and ICD-10 provisions to include culture-bound syndromes like Koro are open to various diagnostic options. Consideration was given to have it included in DSM-IV. One of the fundamental problems inherent in such attempts is the semantic confusion Koro generates in its basic phenomenological analysis. The present paper deals with some of these issues based on historical analysis of world Koro literature, and with comments on the future research agendum.

[Castration anxiety and oral envy in sexual relations. Analytic studies with ethnological observations]. / Kastrationsangst und oraler Neid im Geschlechterverhältnis. Analytisches Arbeiten mit einer ethnologischen Beobachtung.

Ethno-psychoanalysis is the study of the unconscious in foreign cultures. It can however also be of use in understanding unconscious elements operative in our own culture. To illustrate the point, the author describes the "Koro" epidemic which occurs periodically on the island of Hainan off the south of coast of China. This epidemic largely affects young unmarried men and the author pinpoints the unconscious conflicts underlying this collective phenomenon. It transpires that the epidemic is in effect a species of rite of passage in which a group of young males make the communal attempt to overcome castration anxieties which are themselves the product of covert gender envy. In the second section, Gerlach reports on his psychoanalytic encounter with a young man in Germany displaying similar symptoms. The profounder dimensions of this condition were only comprehensible to the author on account of his knowledge of "Koro".

Koro in an Israeli male.

The Koro syndrome, a 'special cultural psychiatric syndrome', is encountered in South China, Malaysia and Indonesia, especially among people of Chinese origin. There are only eight case reports of Koro from the Western hemisphere. We present a typical primary Koro patient from Israel. Jewish cultural mores are a contributory factor.