The Culture-Bound Syndromes

Culture-Bound or Construct-Bound? The Syndromes and DSM-III.- Sorting the Culture-Bound Syndromes.- I: Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric Interest in which some Evidence Supports the Hypothesis of a Neurophysiological Shaping Factor.- A. The Startle Matching Taxon.- The Resolution of the Latah Paradox.- Paradox Lost: The Latah Problem Revisited.- Latah II - Problems with a Purely Symbolic Interpretation: A Reply to Michael G. Kenny.- Shamans and Imu: Among Two Ainu Groups - Toward a Cross-Cultural Model of Interpretation.- Commentary.- B. The Sleep Paralysis Taxon.- Uqamairineq and Uqumanigianiq: Eskimo Sleep Paralysis.- The Old Hag Phenomenon as Sleep Paralysis: A Biocultural Interpretation.- Commentary.- II: Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric Interest in which a Neurophysiological Shaping Factor is only Suspected.- A. The Genital Retraction Taxon.- Koro - A Cultural Disease.- Koro in a Nigerian Male Patient: A Case Report.- The Koro Pattern of Depersonalization in an American Schizophrenic Patient.- Indigenous Koro, A Genital Retraction Syndrome of Insular Southeast Asia: A Critical Review.- Commentary.- B. The Sudden Mass Assault Taxon.- Ethno-Behaviorism and the Culture-Bound Syndromes: The Case of Amok.- Sudden Mass Assault with Grenade: An Epidemic Amok Form from Laos.- The Amok Syndrome in Papua and New Guinea.- Amok.- Commentary.- C. The Running Taxon.- Pibloktoq (Hysteria) Among the Polar Eskimo: An Ethnopsychiatric Study.- Grisi Siknis in Miskito Culture.- The Transformation of Arctic Hysteria.- Commentary.- III: Folk Illnesses Usually Listed as Culture-Bound Psychiatric Syndromes which should Probably No Longer be so Considered.- A. The Fright Illness Taxon.- The Folk Illness Called Susto.- Saladera - A Culture-Bound Misfortune Syndrome in the Peruvian Amazon.- Lanti, Illness by Fright Among Bisayan Filipinos.- Mogo Laya, A New Guinea Fright Illness.- Commentary.- B. The Cannibal Compulsion Taxon.- Windigo Psychosis: The Anatomy of an Emic-Etic Confusion.-

`... admirable and essential book. It moves this vexing subject (Culture-Bound Syndromes) to a more fruitful plane of conceptualization and investigation and constitutes a vital contribution to transcultural psychiatry and medical anthropology.' Social Science and Medicine. `... the essential basis for any future work in cultural psychiatry or, indeed, any attempt at a taxonomy of Western neurosis. it is the `Book of the Year' for comparative psychiatristis.' Psychological Medicine (1987) `This is the first book to examine the concept of culturebound syndromes in a comprehensive manner. It raises important questions about the cultural shaping of all our psychiatric categories of mental illness. This is a major contribution to our understanding of diagnosis in psychiatry.' Prof. Armando R. Favazza `This book provides detailed descriptions and discussions of several of the most important of these syndromes. It also provides the best-to-date discussions of the difficulties of fitting the culture-bound syndromes into present nosological categories. The book has the notable advantage of the firm editorship of a psychiatrist and an anthropologist, both of whom have full familiarity with the other's field. The result is a brilliant course between Scylla and Charybdis. With the help of this book and with DSM-III as a culture-bound but innovative model, ICD-10 might well attain truly inernational coverage; those concerned with psychiatric disorders around the world could find that at last they have a classification which approaches relevance to all of their societies and all of their patients.' R. Prince, M.D., Editor of the Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review `This important book develops approaches as to whether any specific terms refers to a particular behaviour pattern, to local exegesis or to variants to more universal patterns - and more importantly, what the criteria are by which we can make such a decision. It is essential reading for all mental health workers,