In Wetumpka, AL

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Copyright 2003 Edit Thursday October 12, 2017

Culture Bound Syndromes

Culture Bound Syndromes are a group of bizarre behaviors found around the world. Each ethnic culture experiences them in terms of their beliefs.   This is disconcerting for investigators since they can't fit the behaviors and beliefs into any of the "disorders" of the DSM.

Although not understood the delusions of schizophrenia are also culture specific.

Most sites about Culture Bound Syndromes have a list of them with the explanation from local sources.  This page is about what causes the psychotic-like beliefs and bizarre behaviors.

CBS's can be defined in two ways.

The first grouping:

• A sudden onset dissociative or psychotic episode;

• A reaction and understanding, explanation, of the episode which is determined by ethnic and cultural values;

• A full remission with no apparent after effects;

• Sometimes the episode involves violence and automatism;

• Paranoia and anxiety may be a major feature;

• There may be amnesia of the events during the episode.

• Hearing Voices is often mentioned but usually in the local ethnic understanding, spirit possession or speaking to ancestors.

This list conforms to the general diagnosis Brief Psychotic Disorder or reactionary psychosis.

A second Grouping:

This grouping is about activities that engage the  conflict of the physiology sight explored on this site.

The effected person had an occupation or activity which included:

• Confinement of  two or more people in small over-wintering living quarters, (Includes Longhouses in the south pacific, exception to cold weather and small space housing);

• Lived in single-room arrangements for primitive locations (huts, hogans, kivas), or similar space restricted arrangements in inner cities ;

• Was a craft worker in unprotected workspace;

• Was a  student in western style classrooms, at any grade level, elementary, high school, or college;

• Worked as Knowledge worker in a business where Cubicle Level Protection is not provided, (Going Postal);

• Participant in a repeating group ritual or exercise where eyes-open concentration is required, (Qi Gong and Kundalini Yoga), (The Awakening of Kundalini is not considered a CBS but it is the same phenomenon.).

These two groups overlap. Confusion arises because symptoms may vary from the violence of Amok to the strange behavior of removing clothes and running across snow and ice in Arctic Hysteria.

Investigators of Culture Bound Syndromes have been missing a key piece of information. That is the existence of a conflict in the physiology sight.   Subliminal Distraction

The DSM is a collection of observations to  group mental disorders into mood disorders and psychotic disorders. This system of categorization fails when Culture Bound Syndromes are considered because the behaviors are not similar. There is no apparent common observed behavior for most CBS's.

The startle matching behaviors or jumping diseases, plus  Amok, Going Postal and Iich'aa are exceptions to that.

That's where the information to understand them all is.

This early woodcut print does not look like a modern office but the possibility of Subliminal Distraction for occupants is the same.

Confined living arrangements in too-small single-room housing held family or clan members close together so that when someone entered a mental state of complete and full mental investment to make tools or weapons, repair or create clothing, work on ceremonial objects, or just daydream, the "special circumstances" for Subliminal Distraction exposure were created.

Today we think of computer use or long hours sitting at a desk performing knowledge work as the only cause of  Subliminal Distraction exposure. But the level of mental investment is same for everyone when you concentrate to work so that you are no longer consciously aware of events happening around you.

It's the state of full mental investment that allows exposure not the nature of the work.

This would be true for Culture Bound Syndromes such as Ghost Sickness, Windigo Psychosis, Lap Panic, Arctic Hysteria, Cabin Fever, and others.

The Startle Matching behaviors provide a connection across ethic, cultural lines, and national borders. The startle matching behaviors are essentially the same wherever they exist. 

When startled the subject will perform any action commanded even it is harmful to themselves or others. 

In the case of Jumping Frenchmen of Maine the behavior appeared when logging crews, lumberjacks, lived in groups kept long hours in bunkhouses.  Crowded in close proximity when one crewmember performed activities engaging full mental investment there would be others moving in the single room accommodations to provide threat-movement in peripheral vision.

The list below is taken from the original investigation site.

Included are "behaviors" that can be associated with Subliminal Distraction.

All of these behaviors or disorders are not currently considered Culture Bound Syndromes.

But Anorexia, for instance, predominately  happens to women.

That is a definable group to meet the definition of Culture Bound Syndrome.

With the increased use of computers and digital view-screen devices, men are now Anorexic.

• Ainu - Japan - Japanese women - hyper-startle, command behavior, obscenities - may be Jumping Disease

• Alien Abduction Syndrome -- World wide - The culture and belief set includes those concerned with extraterrestrial life forms. It is not currently included in CBS's.

• ADD and ADHD --  not considered a CBS. _ Typically recognized to happen in classrooms. Involves short lapses in attention. Described like switching channels on a TV. Does not happen with apprenticeship training.

• Amafufunyana - Zulus and Xhosas -- Africa - Hearing voices - One source references violence, Believed caused by witchcraft. also substituted for Schizophrenia.

• Amok or Mata Elap -- Malaysia - Sudden violent episode believed to be triggered by insult. Began to happen with large groups living in Longhouses.

• Anfechtung - (Pronounced ahn-feck-tung )   Hutterites in Canada - fear of having sinned. First described by Martin Luther, racing heart, fear, pain, despair, sweating, buzzing in ears, insomnia. Hutterites stop education in ninth grade when students reach puberty and increased body size would begin cause threat-movement detected in classrooms. They have very low levels of schizophrenia.

• Anorexia Nervosa -- United States - eating disorder - altered mental state and belief system, not considered a CBS.

• Arctic Hysteria -- Alaska and Sub Arctic Areas - Sudden dissociative episode.

• Ataque de Nervios - Latin America, Caribbean, Latin Mediterranean groups- Idiom of Distress and has dissociation, with attacks on people.

• Awakening of Kundalini  -- Believed to be a religious experience not considered a CBS.

• Bah-tschi  (bah-tsi, baah-jii) Thailand - learned reaction to startle - may be jumping disease.

• Bangungut - Oriental nightmare death - similar to Hmong Sudden Death Syndrome.

• Baridi - Tanzania - progressive emotional detachment - opposition to cultural values

• Brain Fog or Brain Fag  -- West Africa -- Believed to effect only male high school and college students - Does not happen in apprenticeship training.

• Bulimia --United States eating disorder.

• Cabin Fever -- Not SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder -- Originally a violent event when two or more people were confined in small cabins during the fur trapping period in the United States.

• Cafard or Cathard  -- Polynesia - not much available but said to be similar to Amok.

• Couvade -- world wide not a CBS - sympathetic pregnancy.

• CVS- Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome - NOT a CBS - repeating episodes of vomiting with no cause in adults and children.

• Falling Out - US Miami and afro-Caribbean groups victims faint, can hear but not speak or move.

• Ghost Sickness - Native American groups - hearing sounds attributed to spirits of dead (hearing voices).

• Going Postal -- United States -- Named for violent events by postal workers. Includes other mass violence.

• Grisi siknis - Miskito Indians, Nicaragua - anxiety, anger, aimless running , headache.

• Hafrigan - single reference - no location - somatic manifestation of anxiety?

• Hikikomori - Japan  withdrawal from social contact-depression, OCD, lethargy, paranoia.

• Hi-Wa itck - Mohave Native Americans, depression possible suicide.

• Hmong Sudden Death Syndrome - Laos -

• Hsieh-ping - Taiwan - possession by ghost - disorientation, hallucinations.

• Hwa-byung - Korea - Pain and fear abdominal mass will cause death.

• Icelandic Disease  -- Iceland  -- Believed to be caused by virus because of viral equestrian disease.

• iich'aa --  Navaho -- Sudden episodes of violence compared to Amok, Malaysia.

• Ikota - Siberia - one reference of startle reaction or Jumping Disease.

• Imu - Ainu of Northern Japan - jumping disease -  (See Ainu).

• Jumping Frenchmen of Maine Syndrome -- Lumber camps in Canada and United States (circa 1880), command behaviors, startle matching, hyper-startle has features usually associated with catatonic schizophrenia.

• Karoshi - Japan - physical exhaustion, mental breaks, sudden death MI/ suicide - believed to be caused by overwork.

• Koro - South East Asia - Reaction based on fear that penis will retract into the body and cause death. - injury caused by efforts to prevent that.

• Kuru - New Guinea- South Forte' group - CJD, Kreutzfeld-Jacob Disease, Human variant Mad Cow Disease, or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy - Not a CBS, it is a Neurological disease.

• Latah  --  Malaysia -- jumping disease, startle matching behavior,  compare with Jumping Frenchmen of Maine.

• Lapp panic - Sami Greenland  -little information, listed with Jumping Disease, linked to Bipolar Disorder.

• Locura - Latin America -  chronic psychosis includes altered reality (may be same as Schizophrenia).

• Mal de Pelea  -- Puerto Rico see Amok, Going Postal.

• Mal de ojo (evil eye) -Spain, Latin America - Idiom of Distress or metaphor for disease/ misfortune - headache, restlessness, crying, with stomach complaints. Symptoms compared to paranoia.

• Mal Puesto - Spanish idiom - hexing, magic worked against the sufferer. Symptoms include paranoia.

• Mali-mali - Phillipines - one reference may be Jumping Disease.

• Mal Vientos - bad wind- Maya of Belize - sleep disturbance, hearing voices, itching skin, melancholy -  believed caused by contact with spirit of murdered persons _note skin sensations, they also happen with Subliminal Distraction.

• Myiachit -- Jumping disease of Siberia No additional information available.

• Narahatiye qalb - Iran and mid-east- Panic symptoms including heart pounding.

• Ojo - See Mal de Ojo.  Even approving glances and stares are believed to cause illness, especially when directed at children.

• p'a ling  Wind Illness- (wei han zhen -frigophobia) China and Southeast Asia - fear of cold or wind in heat of tropics

• Piblokto -- Listed as Arctic Hysteria -- period of confusion and bizarre behavior as in to "go piblokto."

• Pica - world wide, southern US - eating non food items clay dirt - Claimed as habit with no psychiatric features.

• Panic Attacks -- Not considered a CBS but caused by the same exposure and same phenomenon.

• Qi Gong Psychotic Reaction or Deviation -- Acknowledged to be caused by too-frequent Qi Gong exercise in compact time frame.

• Screaming Seaman - Submarines and ships - sudden massive panic attack -  Believed caused by stress and the environment aboard those ships.

• Shenjing shaijo - China - Same as Koro.

• Shenkui - China - anxiety or panic symptoms with psychosomatic complaints attributed to semen loss (Dhat).

• Shin-byung - divine illness - Korea - spirit possession, with somatic complaints speaking to or for ancestors (hearing voices).

• Shinkeishitsu - Japan - obsessions, perfectionism, social withdrawal, unfounded fears of  illness or being ill.

• Spell - United States - a trance like state where the subject speaks to deceased relatives (hearing voices).

• Susto - fright sickness Latin America -also  espanto, pasmo, tripa ida, perdida del alma, and chibih. Similar to PTSD with restlessness, excitability, somatic complaints, depression. and drastic change in appetite.

• Tabanka - Trinidad - depression, suicide - linked to men abandoned by wives.

• Taijin-kyofu-sho (sp Tanijin kyofusho) - Japan _ Panic and anxiety related to giving offense - believed to effect only young Japanese men.

• Uqamairineq - Yupik Eskimos - Old Hag - paralysis and hallucinations upon awaking or beginning sleep.

• Ufufuyane - Africa - Young unmarried women- anxiety, shouting ,paralysis, stupor, convulsions, temporary blindness.

• Wei han zheng - Ethnic Chinese Singapore - "fear of being cold' effected persons wear heavy coats, clothing in Singapore heat.

• Whitigo -- Cree for Windigo, the boogeyman of northeastern Native Americans.

• Whitman Syndrome - another name for Going Postal - from shooting incident at University of Texas, tower shooting.

• Windigo (Sp Wendigo) Psychosis -- Canada and United States Native American Tribes - Belief that you are pursued by or are becoming the Windigo ice monster, a cannibal.

• Yaun - Myanmar - one reference - may be Jumping Disease.

• Yi-ping - hysteria - Possession Disorder - China.

• Zar - North Africa and Mid-East - Spirit possession - laughing, shouting, hitting head against wall, weeping

To be continued - the entries are incomplete and your interest may not be listed.
The Wayback Machine did not archive this page. I have it saved in old records on hard drives but it will be sometime before I can screen through all hard drive archives to find the additional text about these syndromes.