Koro—A Culture-bound Depersonalization Syndrome

The term “koro” refers to an unfamiliar state of acute anxiety with partial depersonalization leading to the conviction of penile shrinkage and to fears of dissolution. Among the South Chinese (Cantonese) koro is known as suk-yeong . Van Brero in 1897 first discussed the psychopathology of this syndrome on the basis of cases described in South Celebes. He thought it was a peculiar manifestation of obsessional-compulsive illness. After many years the syndrome again received attention from Van Wulftten Palthe (1934), who concluded that it was an unusual form of anxiety neurosis. Slot in the same year also gave an account of it in the Dutch literature. Van Wulftten Palthe (1936, 1937) further mentioned the existence of corresponding female cases who complained of shrinking of the vulval labia and the breasts. He made a distinction between a real anxiety state and an imaginary organic illness based on folk belief, comparable for example to the popular notion in Southern Europe that urinating against the wind would cause a person to “catch a cold” in the metaphorical sense of getting gonorrhoea.