Main description:

This book provides a definitive account of koro, a topic of long-standing interest in the field of cultural psychiatry in which the patient displays a fear of the genitals shrinking and retracting. Written by Professor A.N. Chowdhury, a leading expert in the field, it provides a comprehensive overview of the cultural, historical and clinical significance of the condition that includes both cutting-edge critique and an analysis of research and accounts from the previous 120 years published literature.
The book begins by outlining the definition, etymology of the term, and clinical features of koro as a culture-bound syndrome, and contextualizes the concept with reference to its historical origins and local experience in Southeast Asia, and its subsequent widespread occurrence in South Asia. It also critically examines the concept of culture-bound disorder and the development of the terminology, such as cultural concepts of distress, which is the term that is currently used in the DSM-5. Subsequent chapters elaborate the cultural context of koro in Chinese and South Asian cultures, including cultural symbolic analysis of associations with animals (fox and turtle) and phallic imagery based on troubling self-perceived aspects of body image that is central to the concept. The second section of the book offers a comprehensive, global literature review, before addressing the current status and relevance of koro, clinically relevant questions of risk assessment and forensic issues, and research methodology.
This landmark work will provide a unique resource for clinicians and researchers working in cultural psychiatry, cultural psychology, anthropology, medical sociology, social work and psychosexual medicine.

Contents:

Chapter One: Definition, Etymology, and Clinical Features.- Chapter Two: Perceptual deviation in penis image.- Chapter Three: Culture-boundness of Koro: Yin-Yang dualism and sexuality in Chinese culture- A psycho-historical note.- Chapter Four: Koro and Animal Connection: Koro and the Fox myth. Koro and Turtle connection.-Chapter Five: Loss of cultural tag of Koro.- Chapter Six: Western Publications: Part One- From 1895 to 1970.- Chapter Seven: Western Publications: Part two- From 1971 to 2000.- Chapter Eight: Western Publications: Part three-From 2001 to 2020.- Chapter Nine: Indian Koro research Publication: From 1943 to 2020.- Chapter Ten: Risk assessment and forensic perspective of Koro.- Chapter Eleven: Koro research methodology.