Koro - AKA genital retraction syndrome.

[AspieAndProud]

I mentioned this on the Travez Perry thread but I was wondering if anyone else sees a parallel with ROGD?

Koro

Koro is a culture-bound syndrome delusional disorder in which an individual has an overpowering belief that one's sex organs are retracting and will disappear, despite the lack of any true longstanding changes to the genitals. Koro is also known as shrinking penis, and it is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The syndrome occurs worldwide, and mass hysteria of genital-shrinkage anxiety has a history in Africa, Asia, and Europe. In the United States and Europe, the syndrome is commonly known as genital retraction syndrome. The condition can be diagnosed through psychological assessment along with physical examination to rule out genuine disorders of the genitalia that could be causing true retraction.

Mechanisms

When considering the biological mechanisms and evolutionary history of koro, it is important to look at it in the larger framework of mass hysteria. While the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood, it has been suggested that the mirror neurons play a major role in mass hysteria outbreaks. Mirror neurons, which have been found in both human and non-human primates, are neurons that fire when one performs an action and when they observe another individual performing the same action. It is hypothesized that we evolved these mechanisms to learn from observation of others, as well as to facilitate imitation. However, within mirror neurons, there is some form of inhibitory process, which prevents us from blindly mimicking every action we observe others perform. New research into this area suggests that in mass hysteria outbreaks something goes amiss in this inhibitory process.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koro_(medicine)

Social contagion and specific cultural obsessions seem to play a part in both conditions.

Also, the mirror neuron system is implicated in autism and a large number of girls presenting with ROGD appear to have autistic traits.

I don’t have anything to add just now, but I just read the OP to DH and we both agreed there are lots of interesting ideas in your post that we want to go away and unpack. Thank you.

(We are on a long car journey, so stuff like thisis perfect grist to the mill.)

It was the reference to Glass Delusion in the other thread that reminded me of this.

Here’s another one:

Dhat syndrome

Dhat syndrome (Sanskrit: धातु दोष, IAST: Dhātu doṣa) is a condition found in the cultures of the Indian subcontinent in which male patients report that they suffer from premature ejaculation or impotence, and believe that they are passing semen in their urine. The condition has no known organic cause.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhat_syndrome

We could also add the Victorian obsession with masturbation causing everything from criminality to blindness.

These appear to be culture specific conditions that focus on anxieties over sex and gender. They are not neurological conditions rooted in biology. There is no organic cause.

Having just read this thread and flipped over to Twitter, this exchange caught my eye (if you're unable to see the screenshot, the discussion compares puberty blockers to anorexia as a means of "freezing the body in time" before puberty).

Doesn't have to be genitals of course - the French have 'heavy legs'

Yes, they’re not all sex based. See also Morgellons:

Morgellons (/mɔːrˈɡɛlənz/) is the informal name of a self-diagnosed, unconfirmed skin condition in which individuals have sores that they believe contain some kind of fibers. Morgellons is poorly characterized but the general medical consensus is that it is a form of delusional parasitosis; the sores are the result of compulsive scratching, and the fibers, when analysed, turn out to originate from textiles....

People usually self-diagnose Morgellons based on information from the Internet and find support and confirmation in online communities of people with similar illness beliefs. In 2006, Waddell and Burke reported the influence of the Internet on people self-diagnosed of Morgellons: "physicians are becoming more and more challenged by the many persons who attempt self-diagnosis on-line. In many cases, these attempts are well-intentioned, yet wrong, and a person's belief in some of these oftentimes unscientific sites online may preclude their trust in the evidence-based approaches and treatment recommendations of their physician." Dermatologist Caroline Koblenzer specifically faults the Morgellons Research Foundation (MRF) website for misleading people: "Clearly, as more and more of our patients discover this site (MRF), there will be an ever greater waste of valuable time and resources on fruitless research into fibers, fluffs, irrelevant bacteria, and innocuous worms and insects."Vila-Rodriguez states that the Internet promotes the spreading and supporting of "bizarre" disease beliefs, because "a belief is not considered delusional if it is accepted by other members of an individual’s culture or subculture".

The Los Angeles Times, in an article on Morgellons, notes that "[t]he recent upsurge in symptoms can be traced directly to the Internet, following the naming of the disease by Mary Leitao, a Pennsylvania mother". Robert Bartholomew, a sociologist who has studied the Morgellons phenomenon, states that the "World Wide Web has become the incubator for mass delusion and it (Morgellons) seems to be a socially transmitted disease over the Internet." According to this hypothesis, people with delusions of parasitosis and other psychological disorders become convinced they have "Morgellons" after reading Internet accounts of others with similar symptoms. This is known as mass psychogenic illness, where physical symptoms without an organic cause spread to multiple people within the same community or social group. A 2005 Popular Mechanics article stated that Morgellons symptoms are well-known and characterized in the context of other disorders, and that "widespread reports of the strange fibers date back" only a few years to when the MRF first described them on the Internet.

The Dallas Observer writes that Morgellons may be memetically spread via the Internet and mass media, and "[i]f this is the case, then Morgellons is one in a long line of weird diseases that have swept through populations, only to disappear without a trace once public concern subsides". The article draws parallels to several media-spread mass delusions.

In 2008, The Washington Post reported that Internet discussions about Morgellons include many conspiracy theories about the cause, including biological warfare, nanotechnology, chemtrails and extraterrestrial life. The Atlantic says it "even received pop-culture attention" when it was featured on Criminal Minds, adding that some people have linked Morgellons "to another illness viewed skeptically by most doctors, chronic Lyme disease".

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgellons

This article about bulimia & social contagion is reall worth reading:
The Strange, Contagious History of Bulimia
By Lee Daniel Kravetz
www.thecut.com/article/how-bulimia-became-a-medical-diagnosis.html

The author has written, 'Strange Contagion: Inside the Surprising Science of Infectious Behaviors and Viral Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves'

review:
"In 2009, tragedy struck the town of Palo Alto: A student from the local high school had died by suicide by stepping in front of an oncoming train. Grief-stricken, the community mourned what they thought was an isolated loss. Until, a few weeks later, it happened again. And again. And again. In six months, the high school lost five students to suicide at those train tracks.

A recent transplant to the community and a new father himself, Lee Daniel Kravetz's experience as a science journalist kicked in: what was causing this tragedy? More important, how was it possible that a suicide cluster could develop in a community of concerned, aware, hyper-vigilant adults?

The answer? Social contagion. We all know that ideas, emotions, and actions are communicable--from mirroring someone's posture to mimicking their speech patterns, we are all driven by unconscious motivations triggered by our environment. But when just the right physiological, psychological, and social factors come together, we get what Kravetz calls a "strange contagion: " a perfect storm of highly common social viruses that, combined, form a highly volatile condition.

Strange Contagion is simultaneously a moving account of one community's tragedy and a rigorous investigation of social phenomenon, as Kravetz draws on research and insights from experts worldwide to unlock the mystery of how ideas spread, why they take hold, and offer thoughts on our responsibility to one another as citizens of a globally and perpetually connected world."

There was a social contagion in an American town recently where high school girls found themselves becoming overcome with uncontrollable twitching and paralysis. Fascinating article on it.
www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/magazine/teenage-girls-twitching-le-roy.html

^ From the article I just linked:

"In her book “Hystories,” the feminist critic Elaine Showalter argues that hysterical epidemics require three ingredients: physician-enthusiasts and theorists; unhappy and vulnerable patients; and supportive cultural environments. The physician-enthusiast generally offers “a unified field theory of a vague syndrome, providing a clear and coherent explanation for its many confusing symptoms,” she writes."

These supposed 'ailments' are still - in some cases - being given traction by people who should know better. Morgellons is still being claimed as an illness by some people, for example.

Grace Your quotation

"In her book “Hystories,” the feminist critic Elaine Showalter argues that hysterical epidemics require three ingredients: physician-enthusiasts and theorists; unhappy and vulnerable patients; and supportive cultural environments. The physician-enthusiast generally offers “a unified field theory of a vague syndrome, providing a clear and coherent explanation for its many confusing symptoms,” she writes."

couldn't be more appropriate if it tried.

VickyEadie what I particularly like (darkly) about the quote is that the third ingredient, which exists, is precisely what we are constantly being told does not exist, by nearly everyone. Because it does exist. If it didn't, we wouldn't be told that by so many people.

Oh my god, Morgellon’s. I embarked on a very intensive skincare regime once and kept finding these black threads coming out of my pores. I Googled it and there were all these sites about “Chemtrails” and conspiracy theories. And absolutely no sensible sites with explanations. Scared the shit out of me. I asked a dermatologist about it and they got this “I’m talking to a nutcase” expression and started talking in a soothing voice at me. Which did not help. I started to worry that there was a common cause, causing both weird black threads in the skin and paranoid delusions, and I had it, and soon I would be posting about chemtrails on the Internet.

Thankfully then the thread thing stopped. I think it might have been the fault of my mascara somehow, it was one of those ones with fibrous goo for making your lashes longer. But that was a wild and scary ride.

Morgellons sound like a mortal enemy of the Daleks.

HomeStar perhaps sebaceous filaments? which are very common and very harmless.

Ah yes Morgellons. I'm the first to admit I love a good conspiracy theory. Mostly I find myself having a good chuckle, but sometimes....I find myself thinking what if? Then I give my head a shake and carry on.
The Morgellon's one was fascinating linking to Chemtrails then to Nanotechnology to Transhumanism. Or it linked to Chemtrails to Haarp to microwave signals/mind control. Or it linked to Monsanto/GMO's to depopulation. So many internet rabbit holes so little time.

Rereading that I feel like I need a pin board and lots of pins and wool.

Adjusts tin foil hat in case the lizard overlords are watching. .

Particularly applicable to males with AGP who think they're women in that koro and its related regional variations are so strongly associated with sexual anxieties.