Ronald C. Simons

Is the startle reaction an emotion

In this study, we examined startle reactions in which the subjects did and did not know when a blank pistol would be fired. In addition, we asked subjects to suppress their startle response and to simulate a startle when there was no gunshot. Detailed measurement of facial muscular actions supported most of the findings reported by Landis and Hunt (1939), but our findings suggested that startle be considered a reflex not an emotion. The findings are considered in terms of current disagreements about exactly what constitutes an emotion, including the argument between Zajonc (1980) and Lazarus (1984) about the role of appraisal.

The Resolution of the Latah Paradox

Latah is a culture-bound syndrome from Malaysia and Indonesia. Persons exhibiting the Latah syndrome respond to minimal stimuli with exaggerated startles, often exclaimning normally inhibited sexually denotative words. Sometimes Latahs after being startled obey the commands or imitate the actions of persons about them. Most episodes of Latah are intentionally provoked for the amusement of onlookers. Similar sets of interactive behaviors have been reported from genetically and culturally unrelated populations (e.g., Bantu, Ainu, and French Canadians). Since competent anthropological investigators have shown Latah to be intimately tied to specific factors in the cultural systems of the Southeast Asian societies in which it is found, its occurrence elsewhere has been considered paradoxical. New data, including films and videotapes of hyperstartling persons from Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, and the United States, suggest a model capable of resolving the apparent paradox by showing how the various forms of latah are culture-specific exploitations of a neurophysiological potential shared by humans and other mammals. Latah provides an especially revealing example of the complex ways in which neurophysiological, experiential, and cultural variables interact to produce a strongly marked social phenomenon.

A feasible and timely enterprise: Commentary on “culture-bound syndromes and international disease classifications” by Raymond Prince and Françoise Tcheng-Laroche

SummaryPrince and Tcheng-Laroche are to be commended for their effort toward establishing a niche for culture-bound syndromes in future versions of ICD and DSM. I agree with them that initially the syndormes should be classified by descriptive features and that interesting as they were, issues of local meaning are only marginally relevant to this classification. However I suggest that the term “culture-bound syndromes” continue to be used to denote culture-bound psychiatric syndromes (those with some alteration of behavior and experience prominent in the symptomatology) and that the term “folk illnesses” be retained as the general term. I also agree that it is time to remove from lists of culture-bound syndromes those folk illnesses which consist of a variable spectrum of somatic and psychological symptoms unified only by their local etiological attribution. These are not syndromes, much less culture-bound syndromes. I agree that the desired diagnostic system will include the culture-bound syndromes not as a separate category but rather incorporated throughout, that some current categories will be adequate and that some entirely new categories will be needed. Because published descriptions of episodes of most syndromes are sketchy and incomplete we still know too little about most of the syndromes to make more than a first approximation at appropriate placement. Thus I agree that much better descriptions of episodes of the culture-bound syndromes are needed, and I believe that when they are obtained many syndromes will sort readily into homogenous sets. In contrast to Prince and Tcheng-Laroche, I believe that it is useful to search for etiologies and that etiologic knowledge must affect the final placement of syndromes within the classification. However I quite agree that at our current primitive level of knowledge very few culture-bound syndromes can be attributed with any confidence to any specific set of causes.Interesting new insights and interesting new problems will be suggested when we attempt to sort and classify the descriptive data already collected. It is time to get on with the task.