In honour of the upcoming commericalized day of love we are supposed to celebrate here in North America on the 14th day of February, there are a number of things I could write about: how our biggest sex organ is our brain; our attachment styles; the myth that opposites attract; the regions of the area that light up when we feel passionate love as opposed to when we feel maternal love or unconditional love, or countless other love-related topics.
Instead, I'll recount a story from a book I was perusing the other day - "50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering the Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behaviour" by Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio, and Beyerstein, all of whom are professors of psychology. In a section towards the end of the book in which the authors outline incidents of truth which are stranger than fiction, the story goes something like this...
In isolated regions of some Asian countries, including Malaysia, China and India some people are periodically stricken with a strange psychological condition called "koro". A male victim of this condition believes that his penis and testicles are disappearing while a female believes that her breasts are disappearing. (Males suffer from this phenomenon at a higher rate than do females.) Koro spreads like a contagious virus througout these isolated regions. In one area of India, for example, about twenty years ago government officials took to the streets with loudspeakers to reassure hysterical citizens that their genitals were not vanishing. The officials, in some cases, had to measure a victim's penis with a ruler to assure him that his penis was not shrinking and disappearing.
And now a few other facts from a few other studies:
- when a woman cries emotional tears, a man's testosterone level drops, but the shedding of other types of tears did not have this effect;
- when a man watches a movie with romance (and little or no violence) his progesterone level increases and his testosterone level drops;
- when a man watches a violent movie, his testosterone level increases; and
- the old expression, "familiarity breeds contempt" is generally incorrect.
Happy Valentine's Day
D.
About Me
- Deborah K. Hanula
- Deborah K. Hanula has a year of Journalism training from Humber College, a Political Science degree from the University of Waterloo, and a Law degree from the University of British Columbia. In addition, she has Diplomas in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Child Psychology, and Psychotherapy and Counselling as well as a Family Life Educator and Coach Certificate and Certificates in Reflexology, Assertiveness Training, and Mindfulness Meditation. She is the author of five cookbooks, primarily concerned with gluten-free and dairy-free diets, although one pertains to chocolate. As an adult, in the past she worked primarily as a lawyer, but also as a university and college lecturer, a tutor, editor, writer, counsellor, researcher and piano teacher. She enjoys a multi-faceted approach when it comes to life, work and study, in order to keep things fresh and interesting. Check out her new book: A Murder of Crows & Other Poems (2023).
