Odd Syndrome Causes 'Fear of One's Own Glance'

By Deborah Huso

While we've all had the experience of offending someone by making an inappropriate remark or perhaps snickering when we shouldn't have, imagine feeling that your expression was offensive to others all the time.

That's exactly what some Japanese people experience, according to new research published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. Researchers, led by Dr. Katsuaki Suzuki with the Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, have found that some Asians suffer from what they call jiko-shisen-kyofu or "fear of one's own glance."

That means they assume their own glance, or the way they look at people, is offensive. They think it causes others to be uncomfortable, and, as a result, their shame often leads them to avoid social situations.

Many Americans may find this Asian syndrome difficult to understand, and there is, in fact, no correlation to "fear of one's own glance" in western psychiatry.

That doesn't mean it's an invalid diagnosis, however, as Suzuki's new research paper points out.

She says "fear of one's own glance" is "both unique to East Asia and a culture-bound syndrome." Westerners do not suffer from it.

[Click here to read full article]