Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Koro

  • Isaac Bashevis Singer describes koro

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer.”– Isaac Bashevis Singer I. B. Singer (1903–1991) was born in Warsaw, Poland. He lived there and also in rural Poland during the First World War. In 1935 he immigrated…

  • Men, women, and idioms of distress

    Mary SeemanToronto, Ontario, Canada In all cultures there is a place for illness that is not easily explained by individual pathology. It is usually attributed to larger societal unrest, with some individuals responding to that unrest with somatic or psychological symptoms. When a community is stressed, by natural disasters or by wars, by feelings of…