The Mystery of the Shrinking Penises and The Madness to the Methods of Dennis Hopper

Welcome back to our first Research Round Robin. In this series, each member of the Coffee Donuts crew researches their own topic and shares it with the group.  Join us in part two as we explore The Mystery of the Shrinking Penises and The Madness to the Methods of Dennis Hopper.

Koro syndrome is a psychiatric disorder characterized by severe anxiety and an intense fear of the shrinking of ones penis, or in some cases with women, the vulva or nipples.  However, it’s not just shrinking, but a complete retraction of the genitals into the abdomen until they disappear.  For Koro syndrome sufferers, it is believed that after the genital disappears you will die.

After being on the movie industries blacklist for eight years, Dennis Hopper was the hottest director in Hollywood after the success of Easy Rider.  Although he was known as a sullen renegade that speaks revolution, settles arguments with karate, and trips on anything you can shoot or swallow, he somehow solicited a million dollars from Universal for the production of The Last Movie.