Dr. Langness Replies

It is rather difficult to agree with the statement, “The Malayans always have latah and amok, not the Puerto Rican syndrome or the Mohave variety.” Even though latah is rather frequent in Eastern Java and perhaps in Malaya, it is rare or nonexistent in other parts of Indonesia; but very similar conditions are to be found in other parts of East Asia, in Siberia, and in parts of Africa. Amok is definitely rare in Java but has been reported in other parts of the world. On the other hand, there are in Indonesia many cases of transitory confusional states(3, 6, 8) and of aggressive episodes (mata gelap) or infantile regressive behavior (sedjoendai[1]) which can be compared to the Puerto Rican and Mohave syndrome. Therefore it seems questionable that there is a cultural specificity in these disturbances, although certainly they are strongly influenced by the pattern of local culture and as such are particularly amenable to interdisciplinary research. The references I. Amir, M.: are: Note on the Topic Sedjoendai,and attributed to them a degree of finality they were not intended to have, I do not think we are in substantial disagreement. I did not “introduce” the term “hysterical psychosis” but merely pointed out that: 1 ) contrary to what Hollender and Hirsch(2) found, there were articles in which hysterical psychosis was considered as an entity; 2) there were some non-Western syndromes to which theadequately applied than 3) the term might be useful in delineating a category of behavior to facilitate cross-cultural...