Marginalium

On culture specific mental disorders.

Lets take two unrelated facts: 1) pain medication is often white, because patients associate white with pain relief and white coloured placebo pills are more effective at combating pain than other coloured medications, 2) thousands of Indian men report suffering from a condition called ‘Dhat syndrome’, where young men believe their vital energies are being sapped through loss of semen, causing guilt, insomnia, heart palpitations and anxiety amongst other symptoms. What connects these two things? The idea that the human body is open to culture in a way that directly changes physiology.

This is like the spiritual sequel of It’s not ‘just’ a placebo.