Taijin-kyofu-sho (TKS) is a common neurotic disorder among psychiatric patients in Japan characterized by “fear of other people.” Unlike social phobics who themselves fear embarrassment, TKS patients avoid social situations for fear of embarrassing or offending others. Because TKS has been reported exclusively among Japanese patients, it is believed to be a culture-bound syndrome. In the present paper, we describe a case of TKS in a black American woman who avoided people because she feared embarrassing them by furtively glancing at their genital areas.