title: Understanding egorrhea from cultural-clinical psychology.
abstract: Based on his observations in Japanese clinical settings, Fujinawa (1972) conceptualized egorrhea syndrome, which includes symptoms such as erythrophobia, fear of eye-to-eye confrontation, olfactory reference syndrome, delusions of soliloquy, delusions of sleep talking, and thought broadcasting. The key feature of this syndrome is self-leakage, a perceived sense that one's personal internal information, such as feelings and thoughts, are leaking out. To reach a more comprehensive understanding of egorrhea, this paper aims to present general overview and reconsider the phenomenon of self-leakage using cultural-clinical psychology as a framework. First, the symptoms of egorrhea are reviewed in relation to other related psychopathologies such as social anxiety disorder (SAD) and taijin kyofusho (TKS), as well as schizophrenia. Second, a series of empirical studies conducted using Japanese non-clinical samples are summarized. The results of these studies form the basis for subsequent discussions, which incorporates the cultural-clinical psychology perspective proposed by Ryder et al. (2011). This paper ends with a general discussion regarding implications for research and clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Kaori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshihiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanno
keywords: cognitive model; culture; egorrhea symptoms; schizophrenia; social anxiety disorder; taijin-kyofusho