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Mar 07, 2010, 06:46 PM
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I heard about this in the sticky about people trying to make this a diagnosis.
from a website:
Quote:
Dissociative trance disorder is an unofficial category often referred to by psychologists and psychiatrists working in premodern, nonwestern societies. Trance is a narrowing of one's attention so that some things (such as sight, movement, or even outer reality) are placed outside awareness. Cross-cultural therapist Richard Castillo, in his book Culture and Mental Illness, says that trance is "an adaptation with great individual and species survival value." It is not far from such non-pathological states as hypnosis and meditation.
Castillo gives numerous examples:
Amok is found in Malaysia and Indonesia. The word comes from the Sanskrit for "no freedom." It involves a person losing their sense of self, grabbing a weapon such as a machete, and running through the village slashing at people. Afterwards, they have no memory of what they have done and are typically excused from any damage, even if their actions resulted in someone's death!
Grisi siknis is found among teenage girls and yound women of the Miskito indians in Nicaragua. They also run wild with machetes, occasionally assaulting people or mutilating themselves. They have no memory of their actions.
Pibloktoq or arctic hysteria is found among polar eskimos. For anywhere from a few minutes to an hour, a person takes off their clothing and runs screaming through the snow and ice, as a response to a sudden fright.
Latah (in Malaysia) involves violent body movements, taking unusual postures, trance dancing, mimicking other people, throwing things, and so on.
"Falling out" (in the Bahamas) involves falling to the ground, apparently comatose, but hearing and understanding what is going on around you.
"Indisposition" (in Haiti) is a possession trance understood as a response to fear.
"Fits" (in India) is a seizure-like response by some women to family stress, curable by exorcism or by simply telling her husband to protect her from her inlaws!
In the west, these kinds of behaviors are often classified as impulse control disorders, along with trichotillomania, compulsive gambling, pyromania, and kleptomania (discussed with anxiety disorders). One of these - intermittent explosive disorder - is basically the same as running amok, and is commonly known as "going postal."
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...your thoughts?
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