Cultural history of Penis Panic

Interesting article, I'll try to read the full text soon. The authors have found instances of European penis panic as late as the middle ages, and draw the important connection between koro, potency and the ego-ideal. Check it out:

The aim of this article is to present a summarizing overview on ethnomedical aspects of koro (in Chinese called suo-yang), the panic anxiety state in which affected males believe that the penis is shrinking and/or retracting, and perhaps disappearing. While reduction of penile volume occurs physiologically due to vasoconstriction in cold temperature and intense anxiety, it is believed in certain cultures that genital shrinking leads to impotence and sterility, and eventually to death. Traditional Chinese medicine treats suo-yang, the reduction of the male principle yang, as a dangerous disturbance of the life-sustaining yin-yang equilibrium of the organism. Koro has therefore been held to be a Chinese "culture-bound" condition. However , the koro phenomenon is also known among diverse ethnic and religious groups in Asia and Africa, typically in cultures in which reproductive ability is a major determinant of a young person's worth. Koro epidemics of panic anxiety due to widespread fears of losing one's genitals, procreative ability, and even one's life, are triggered by rumors of genital disappearance supposedly caused in China by female fox spirits, in Singapore and Thailand by mass poisoning, and in Africa by sorcery, usually in the context of socioeconomic or political tension. Today, in contemporary Western societies, ideas of genital disappearance are not culturally endorsed. But historically, it should be remembered that in the late Middle Ages in Europe, a man could lose his membrum virile through magical attacks by witches. The conclusion is that the psychological disappearance of the penis is a universal syndrome that was described recently in Asia and Africa and already in Medieval Europe.

Just Say No

A Truth Procedures public service announcement about the dangers of cannabis sativa:

Department of Psychiatry, Athens General Hospital G. Gennimatas, Athens, Greece. ckalaitzi@yahoo.gr

The genital-shrinking syndrome is a transient state of acute anxiety characterized by the triad of a deep-seated fear of penile shrinkage, its disappearance into the abdomen, and apprehension regarding inevitable impotence or even death. It is also known by the Malayo-Indonesian term 'koro'. In the West, koro syndrome has been reported only in relation with various somatic, psychiatric and drug-induced disorders. The vast majority of non-psychiatric cases was related to neurological disorders or intoxication with cannabis or amphetamine. This is the first case of cannabis-induced koro-like syndrome ever reported in Greece. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

For the children.

Anti-Penis Panic

The reverse of Penis Panic has been reported in the Journal of Consciousness Studies. Observe:

V.S. Ramachandran and Paul D. McGeoch

Phantom Penises In Transsexuals: Evidence of an Innate Gender-Specific Body Image in the Brain

Abstract: How the brain constructs one’s inner sense of gender identity is poorly understood. On the other hand, the phenomenon of phantom sensations — the feeling of still having a body-part after amputation — has been much studied. Around 60% of men experience a phantom penis post-penectomy. As transsexuals report a mismatch between their inner gender identity and that of their body, we wondered what could be learnt from this regarding innate gender-specific body image. We surveyed male-to-female transsexuals regarding the incidence of phantoms post-gender reassignment surgery. Additionally, we asked female-to-male transsexuals if they had ever had the sensation of having a penis when there was not one physically there. In post-operative male-to-female transsexuals the incidence of phantom penises was significantly reduced at 30%. Remarkably, over 60% of female-to-male transsexuals also reported phantom penises. We explain the absence/presence of phantoms here by postulating a mismatch between the brain’s hardwired gender-specific body image and the external somatic gender. Further studies along these lines may provide penetrating insights into the question of how nature and nurture interact to produce our brain-based body image.

Correspondence: Paul D. McGeoch, Center for Brain and Cognition, UCSD, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. Email: pmcgeoch@psy.ucsd.edu

Koro and the Castration Complex

Here is an in-depth analysis of a case of Koro in a Jordanian man (this is strange, because arabian societies do not generally experience penis panics)

http://www.emro.who.int/Publications/EMHJ/0503/21.htm

A 24-year-old single, male, Jordanian farmer was brought by his elder brother to the psychiatric outpatient clinic. He complained of a two-week history of difficulty in getting to sleep, apprehension, isolation, fearfulness and one night of strange behaviour. He asked for help to stop the shrinking of his penis and anxiously asked to have his genitalia checked. He was pulling at his penis to prevent it from being sucked into his pelvis. He had been kept awake the whole night with this condition.

The patient was the third of four brothers and had completed seventh grade education. His only medical history was surgery (orchidopexy) for torsion in the left testicle at the age of 19 years, after which he had become preoccupied by the idea that he might be infertile and that his manhood was defective. He had not sought medical advice about his fears.

A review of his sexual history revealed that the patient had heterosexual masturbational fantasies, had had no homosexual experience and his one sexual experience was with a prostitute 1 month prior to the onset of his symptoms, after which he was left feeling guilty and embarrassed. His brother described him as shy, sensitive and dependent, with a small social circle. The family had no history of psychiatric illnesses.

Physical examination, including the genitalia, was unremarkable and showed no clinical signs of organicities. The patient was bewildered, sweating, tremulous and caught restlessly at his crotch. He was convinced that his penis was gradually shrinking and would disappear into his abdomen. In great fear he stated that he preferred death to such a fate. There were no psychotic features. He was of average intelligence and brain magnetic resonance imaging was normal.

He was diagnosed as having a generalized anxiety disorder and panic. He was treated as an outpatient with the following medications:

• imipramine: 25 mg/day gradually increased to 75 mg/day over 3 weeks;

• alprazolam: 1 mg/day taken as 0.5 mg tablet twice daily.

In addition, he was given supportive psychotherapy and behavioural therapy.

He was asymptomatic in 3 months and at a 10-month follow-up he was completely back to normal and had ceased taking medication.

Discussion

Sporadic cases of Koro-like syndrome have been reported in non-Chinese cultures and countries other than China and South-East Asia (European, African, North American, Middle Eastern countries and India) [2,6].

These cases were usually part of, or accompanied by, variant disorders [2,7,8,9] and almost all were a non-classical, incomplete form of the syndrome (as in the case of this patient, because rather than being in fear of impending death, he preferred death to the disappearance of his genitals).

Despite a cultural heritage in Jordan that believes in ghosts and demons, and in their power to manipulate and influence behaviour (occasionally including sexual potency and the ability to inflict harm), these ghosts are not believed capable of taking away a person's genitals. Generally, Arab culture has little relation to Chinese and South-East Asian cultures, particularly in this type of belief.

In this case the patient was preoccupied with a misconception about his fertility and sexual potency after his testicular operation. Added to this were his feelings of guilt after a sexual contact with a prostitute. It is presumed that the symptoms were an expression of his premorbid sexual status and experience [3,5].

Koro seems to be an obvious manifestation of castration anxiety, perhaps the most obvious one. Although castration anxiety is the end of the Oedipus complex, it can bring powerful neuroses of its own. High neuroticism and anxiety are complementary, hence the curative effects of anti-anxiety medication for Koro. Guilt also relates to the anxiety-neurosis matrix. Neurosis is fed by a sort of libidinal horse-trading between the id and superego - in cases like this where strongly taboo id drives are gratified, they might have to pay recompense in the form of intense castration anxiety. Penis panic may have been the first thing that Freud really nailed - Schreber certainly seemed to suffer. The shift from the 19th to the 20th century in the west marked the end of evident, out in the open penis panic. Now, as the Baraboo editorial suggests, we handle our penis panic by voting and being assholes.

Proust and Penis Panic

The strongest presence in Proust's life at this juncture was Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac. Fifteen years older, he had everything Proust thought he wanted. The Count was descended from the model for D'Artagnan of The Three Musketeers and could claim most of European nobility as relatives by blood or marriage. Immense wealth enabled him to cultivate an aesthetic manner and way of life remarkable enough to have already inspired one notorious book, Huysmans' A rebours. He was also a published poet of some note and flaunted his homosexuality with enormous style. Proust fawned on him for several years before he could pull away, and the fascination never disappeared entirely. When Montesquiou mentioned his young friend once in print, Proust had to fight a pistol duel with a critic who seized the occasion to ridicule him as "one of those small-time fops in literary heat." No one was hurt.

Homosexuality was referred to as inversion in Proust's day, and Proust was both terrified by and fascinated with it. Proust's duel is a classic example of Westernized penis panic. The insecure jewish invert must duel to defend his honor (from the penis-snatching frenchie journalist).

Today in Penis Panic

An editorial from the Baraboo News Reporter [NOTE: Baraboo, Wisconsin is the birthplace of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus) on penis panic and its possible place in American society:

http://www.wiscnews.com/bnr/opinion/283917

Ben: Shrinkage: It's not just on 'Seinfeld' anymore

Occasionally we are reminded that this is the greatest nation in the world, and that we are lucky to be Americans. Not because you can get a chalupa at the drive-through window at 4 a.m., or even because every resident eventually gets a reality show on cable.

It's because a guy can walk the streets unafraid that a sorcerer will put a whammy on his manhood.

Not every nation can make that claim. In the Congo, men say black magic is leaving them, um, dis-membered.

According to the Reuters news service, police have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers for theft. Their booty? Well, it wasn't "booty" at all, but rather another area of the male anatomy. The sorcerers are suspected of stealing or shrinking men's penises. And you thought the guys had just gotten out of the pool or something.

Reports of penis snatching are common in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain body parts still occur. No doubt this is where Joan Rivers gets spare parts for her face.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, capital of the Congo. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, as listeners were advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings. What, are they disguised as Frodo?

Purported victims, 14 of whom were detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear. Some victims said it was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

To the average American, this sounds like a hoax. How could someone remove that organ on the spot against the victim's will? Even America's top divorce lawyers haven't figured out how to do that.

"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters. Not so fast, chief: There are some things guys don't joke about, and the well-being of their little friend is one of them. Any threat south of the border moves our homeland security alert level to orange.

Need evidence? A wave of panic over the purported penis attacks triggered attempted lynchings. If these sorcerers have the power of invisibility, now would be the time to use it.

"You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you," Oleko told Reuters. "We've had a number of attempted lynchings. ... You see them covered in marks after being beaten."

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs.

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it?'" Oleko said.

Not everyone shares Oleko's humorous take on these events. Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from the nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft, seeking revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members.

"It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," 29-year-old Alain Kalala said.

Maybe there is something to these allegations, after all. No guy is going to confess to shrinkage in public except in the most dire circumstances. Men want the world to think they resemble the Washington Monument, and strive not to give anyone cause for doubt.

Ah yes, the Washington Monument: A symbol of American strength and power. It is a 555-foot reminder — think the architect was compensating for something? — that ours is a free, virile land where men needn't fear wang whammies.

In this country, we don't use black magic to settle political scores. Instead we concoct hurtful lies about our opponent's past and repeat them in the media until they become accepted as facts and he is disgraced.

We practice a more civilized brand of emasculation.

Submit shrinkage confessions to columnist Ben Bromley at bbromley@capitalnewspapers.com

Penis Panic

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A593354

In technical psychological jargon, koro is known as genital retraction syndrome. In layperson's terms, it's a pathological fear that the genitals are shrinking into the body.

Many victims of koro believe that their genitals will be completely sucked into the body, causing death. While this condition occasionally occurs in women, it is much more common in men¹.

Koro is a considered a culture-bound syndrome, meaning that it only occurs in certain cultures, and does not directly correspond with diseases or conditions recognised by Western medicine. It is most common in China, Southeast Asia, and Malaysia, although outbreaks have occurred in Africa as well. The condition tends to have a different name in every region, but these names often translate as 'shrinking penis'. For example, the Chinese term of 'suo yang' translates as 'shrinking penis'.

Causes and Cures

Commonly cited causes of koro include witchcraft, sexual relations with prostitutes, masturbation, and food poisoning.

• In some parts of Africa, lynch mobs have attacked so-called 'penis snatchers' based on accusations of men who claimed that the evildoers have somehow caused their genitalia to retract into the abdomen. Later medical examinations, however, showed the accusing men to be completely intact.

• In China, men may believe that the yin/yang balance of sexual relations is fatally disrupted when 'male essence' is released in any situation other than spousal intercourse.

• Mass hysteria has often caused widespread epidemics of koro, such as the one in 1967 purportedly caused by eating contaminated pork in Singapore. Public reassurance from doctors and the government was enough to quell the epidemic.

Ethnographic psychologists² consider koro to be closely related to panic attacks precipitated by sexual anxiety. Attacks of koro are often set off when men are in situations that would normally cause the male genitals to shrink slightly, such as emotional distress or cold temperatures.

While there are no substantiated reports of the condition itself resulting in any physical damage to the individual, many sufferers have unfortunately inflicted harm upon themselves in frantic attempts to stretch the penis to prevent further shrinkage. It is not unusual for those with koro to resort to using mechanical devices such as clamps or weights.

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¹ While the fears of men with koro centre on the penis and testicles, in women the fears may be focused on the vulva and/or nipples.
² Ethnographic psychologists analyse other cultures.

It would be foolish to assume that penis panic is the exclusive province of the Other. The current crises in neoliberalism, both theoretical (as the unknowable gradually swallows and digests the knowable) and practical (as the force projection powers of key neoliberal actors recede towards their domestic boundaries, and sometimes even further) can be read as a sort of diffuse and generalized penis panic. Be on the lookout for a continuing Truth Procedures series on the rise of penis panics of all stripes and sizes, and stay away from sorcerers, prostitutes and onanism.