Latah

Latah, from Southeast Asia, is a condition in which abnormal behaviors result from a person experiencing a sudden shock. When surprised, the affected person typically engages in such behaviors as screaming, cursing, dancing type movements, and uncontrollable laughter, and will typically mimic the words or actions of those around them. Physical symptoms include an increased heart rate and profuse sweating, but no clear physiological source has been identified.

Latah is considered a culture-specific startle disorder that was historically regarded as personal difference rather than an illness. Similar conditions have been recorded within other cultures and locations. For example, there are the so-called Jumping Frenchmen of Maine, the women of the Ainu people of Japan (imu), the Siberian (miryachit), and the Filipino and Thai peoples; however, the connection among these syndromes is controversial.

The earliest mention of Latah is by J. R. Logan’s journal from 1849 when he travelled from Melaka to Naning. Though this is only a possible reference, by the 1860s, Latah had been clearly identified in Malay and Java. Seen first as merely a “cerebral affection”, little was understood about Latah during this time. O’Brien’s notes from the early to mid 1880’s are the first gathering of information on Latah we have recorded. He observed that Latah was more common in women than men, and more likely to occur in more mature, rather than younger, women. From many of the original accounts of European travelers, Latah does not seem to have changed much in either affected demographic population nor in symptoms.

The British colonial administrator Frank Swettenham wrote about Latah in his volume of essays Malay Sketches (1895). Swettenham describes how two policemen from Ambon Island stationed in Selangor in 1874 who were affected with the condition were made the victims of pranks by their colleagues.

Latah was included in the DSM IV under the "Dissociative Disorder: Not Otherwise Specified" section as a culture bound syndrome. The DSM IV describes Latah as a Hypersensitivity to sudden fright, often with echopraxia, echolalia, command obedience, and dissociative or trancelike behavior. It mentions other cultures where Latah is found, but the only further information the DSM IV gives us is that in Malaysia, it is more often found in middle aged women. It has been removed from the DSM 5, and rather than the DSM 5 expanding upon the DSM IV’s list of culture bound syndromes, it has instead provided cross-lists for more commonly known disorders that a culture bound syndrome might be classified as. The DSM 5 has taken out the ‘culture bound syndrome’ language and replaced it with more ‘sensitive’ language, and the glossary where the now shortened list of previously recognized culture bound syndromes is titled “Other Specified” and “Unspecified” Dissociative Disorders. A more general discussion, involving the formation of a cultural identity, explanation, and assessment, has been added.

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