“Jikoshu”: Japanese studies in the 1960s and 1970s, and international trends today

Abstract

AbstractIn the 1960s and 1970s, there was widespread discussion in Japan about the pathological experience of “unpleasant odors emanating from one's body.” This symptom is called “Jikoshu,” and this term was used in combination with various words, such as “Genkaku” (hallucination) and “Moso” (delusion), reflecting its symptomatological ambiguity. The best‐known term in the English‐language literature is Jikoshu‐Kyofu (Jikoshu phobia). By further abstracting this symptom and viewing it as a delusion‐like experience of “something leaking out of me,” egorrhea syndrome (Fujinawa) was proposed, which was considered to be partly a pathology of schizophrenia. Similar cases were characteristically observed during adolescence, and a study emerged suggesting that the syndrome was “adolescent paranoia” (Murakami), distinct from schizophrenia. However, the terms “Jikoshu‐Taiken” (Jikoshu experience; Kasahara et al.) and “Jikoshu‐Sho” (Jikoshu syndrome; Miyamoto) were proposed to emphasize the nosological ambiguity. Considered a culture‐bound syndrome unique to Japan or East Asia, Jikoshu received little attention in the English‐language literature apart from a 1971 study of olfactory reference syndrome (Pryse‐Phillips), which presents with similar symptoms. In recent years, research has placed this disorder within the obsessive‐compulsive spectrum, and it has been adopted as an ICD‐11 disorder under the term “olfactory reference disorder.”