ผู้วิจัย/Authors: Sangun Suwanlert

ชื่อเรื่อง/Title: Thai Cultural Concepts Related to Koro Syndrome

แหล่งที่มา/Source: Journal of The Psychiatric Association of Thailand, Vol. 23, No. 3, September 1978, Page 261-275

รายละเอียด / Details:

The purpose of this paper is to discuss aetiology of the Koro syndrome epidermic which occurred in Thailand in 1976. My investigation has attempted to explain four concepts of Koro epidemic in Thailand. 1. Sexual identity among Thai people. It may be composed of several factors:some Chinese and some Indian. Since a large number of people in Thailand are from Chinese ancestors, there are a few prevailing ideas from Chinese culture.Sexual problems or problems related to the sexual organs are prudently discussed as kidney related problems. People often feel herb treatment for kidney ailments, the use of deer's horn and ginseng roots, will have a direct effect on sexual potency and improve any problems related to the sexual organs, even though they refer to the sexual organs as being "the kidneys". There is therefore withun a segment of the population of Thailand an idea about a direct psycho-somatic link between the body organs and the sexual organs. Influence from Hindu and Brahmin religons can be seen in village fork;ore. For instance many local men wear amulets which are apenis image around their waist to provide protective and potency powers for their sexual organs and sexual behavior. At the village level, there can often be observed a number of penis images in native shrines for the Mother spirit (Chow mae). Offerings and vows may be made to this native shrine. This is an influence from Bramin and Hindu sources. In Northeast Thailand many people practice a type of phallic observation and it is a central part of their daily life. An interposed word is often used in daily conservation "Oh, you must be so afraid that it makes your oenis shrunk". This interposedword shows a relation between fear and genital shrinkage. In my observation sexual identity has gradually changed since influx of American troops into country. The influx of many soldiers and tourists has produced a kind of practical necessity, a liberalization of sexual morse in the modern population. Undobtly of large numbers of prositutes, nights club stewardesses and many bar girls as well as the practice of many girls becoming paid wives for soldiers has produced many important changes in sexual mores, However, to date, there has been little research on the extent or the direction of the changed sexual attitudes. From police records and from personal observations, it can be seen that there are six aspects that might expain changes in sexual mores in Thailand. 1.1 Male and female people are today more overtly in communication with each other than in the past. Socially approved forms of sexual play and social intercourse between the sexes in public and in private have been liberalized. 1.2 There are more incidences of sexual infidelity among Thai wives and husbands than has been the case in the past. 1.3 There is an increase of pornographic material which can now be seen in ordinary newspapers, magazines and in the popular forms of entertainment. This was not the case for examble 15 to 20 years ago. 1.4 There has been an increase of legal cases involving sexually related crimes, including rape, sexual assault and others that have increased annually. 1.5 People have shown a decreasing respect for the concept of virginity than that traditionally observed. 1.6 Many people tend to be concerned about the act of intercourse. This includes the efforts at plastic or repairative surgery to improve sexual performance or sexual desirability. These defects would have in former times been ingored. 2. Fear of death as a concept. Fear of death is a major contributing factor in the syndrome. Background to this concept can be seen from traditional practices of village folk doctors. For usually in local physical examinations in the Northeast when a bative doctor notices any shrinkage in the sexual organs of the acute or chronic patients, he will pronounce imminent death. In the male this may be shrinkage of the penis while in the female it may be shrinkage of the breast and nipples. Because of the close association of genital shrinkage and death in folk medicine, most people in the Northeast understandably felt anxiety upon hearing rumours of the Koro symptoms. 3. Concept of semen and sexual potency. There is no report among Thrimen of a derect relationship between loss of semen during sexual intercourse and a committant loss of vitality in the male. This is contradiction to Indian and Chinese cultures which do hold such a relationship. 4. The rumours from political refugees from Laos in 1976 is felt to be relevant to the incidence of the epidemic although, in the auther's opinion, these rumours concerning the chemical adulturation of food and a concomittant loss of potency and sexual shrinkage in both male and female are unsubstantiated. The rumours held that a chemical additive had left males impotent or eith shrunken sexual organs while for women it had increased their sexual appetites when they imbibed the food. Certainly, however, the rumour was able to reenforce the unconscious fears held by villagers related to to death, apprehension and lack of sexual potency and or shrinkage of the sexual organs. In such circumstances the author believe that at the local district level, the idea of Koro sydrome gained credence and were reemforced with a result "epidemic" following. From the concepts outline above, the author feel that a combination of factors, the rumours from Laos, the local fear of death ane its relationahip to sexual organ shrinkage, can be significant factors in explaining the occurance of the Koro epidemic in Norteast Thailand in 1976.

Keywords: epidemic, Thai culture, mass hysteria, psychosomatic, fear, sexual organ shrinkage, Koro epidemic

ปีที่เผยแพร่/Year: 1978

Address: Srithanya Hospital

Code: 0000680

ISSN/ISBN: -

Country of publication: Thailand.

Language: English.

Category: Abstract Journal.

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