Parcopresis, also termed psychogenic fecal retention, is the inability to
defecate
Defecation (or defaecation) follows digestion, and is a necessary process by which organisms eliminate a solid, semisolid, or liquid waste material known as feces from the digestive tract via the anus. The act has a variety of names ranging fro ...
without a certain level of privacy. The level of privacy involved varies from sufferer to sufferer. The condition has also been termed shy bowel. This is to be distinguished from the embarrassment that many people experience with defecation in that it produces a physical inability, albeit of psychological origin.
Parcopresis is not a medically recognized condition.
The Private Lives of Public Bathrooms - Julie Beck - The Atlantic
/ref>
History
Parcopresis is described as an inability to defecate when other people are perceived or are likely to be nearby (e.g., in the same public toilet, house or building). This inability affects the sufferer's lifestyle to varying degrees, ranging from the urge to defecate only in a limited number of “safe” places, to — in less severe presentations — allowing for defecation in places where the person is unknown and unlikely to become known in the future, such that any embarrassment is unlikely to have consequences lasting beyond the episode itself. The level of restriction varies depending on the severity of each sufferer's condition.
See also
*Paruresis
Paruresis, also known as shy bladder syndrome, is a type of phobia in which a person is unable to urinate in the real or imaginary presence of others, such as in a public restroom. The analogous condition that affects bowel movement is called ...
, an inability to urinate
*Encopresis
Encopresis is voluntary or involuntary passage of feces outside of toilet-trained contexts (fecal soiling) in children who are four years or older and after an organic cause has been excluded. Children with encopresis often leak stool into thei ...
References
Further reading
*
Shyness
Anxiety disorders
Phobias
{{Psychiatry-stub